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24 [a](A)There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and provide themselves with good things from their toil. Even this, I saw, is from the hand of God.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:24–26 The author is not advocating unrestrained indulgence. Rather he counsels acceptance of the good things God chooses to give. This is the first of seven similar conclusions that Qoheleth provides; see 3:12–13, 22; 5:17–18; 8:15; 9:7–9; 11:9.

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink(A) and find satisfaction in their own toil.(B) This too, I see, is from the hand of God,(C)

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24 There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

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22 (A)And I saw that there is nothing better for mortals than to rejoice in their work; for this is their lot. Who will let them see what is to come after them?(B)

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22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work,(A) because that is their lot.(B) For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

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22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

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17 (A)Here is what I see as good: It is appropriate to eat and drink and prosper from all the toil one toils at under the sun during the limited days of life God gives us; for this is our lot. 18 Those to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of them, so that they receive their lot and find joy in the fruits of their toil: This is a gift from God.

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17 All their days they eat in darkness,
    with great frustration, affliction and anger.

18 This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink(A) and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor(B) under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.

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17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.

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(A)Go, eat your bread[a] with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God favors your works.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:7–10 Go, eat your bread…enjoy life: the author confesses his inability to imprison God in a fixed and predictable way of acting. Thus he ponders a practical and pragmatic solution: Seize whatever opportunity one has to find joy, if God grants it.

Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine(A) with a joyful heart,(B) for God has already approved what you do.

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Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

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