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13 I decided to study everything that happens on the earth. I used wisdom to try to understand these things. I realized that God has given people hard work to do, which causes them to suffer. 14 I thought about all the things that people do on the earth. I realized that all these things have no purpose. It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.

15 If someone has bent something,
    you cannot always make it straight again.
You cannot count things,
    if they are not there.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 1:15 These were probably proverbs. There are things that you cannot change. There are things that you cannot even describe.

13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.(A) What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!(B) 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.(C)

15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;(D)
    what is lacking cannot be counted.

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