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Indeed, they do not know what is to be, for who can tell them how it will be?(A) No one has power over the wind[a] to restrain the wind[b] or power over the day of death; there is no discharge from the battle, nor does wickedness deliver those who practice it.(B) All this I observed, applying my mind to all that is done under the sun, while one person exercises authority over another to the other’s hurt.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 8.8 Or breath
  2. 8.8 Or breath

Since no one knows the future,
    who can tell someone else what is to come?
As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
    so[a] no one has power over the time of their death.
As no one is discharged in time of war,
    so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own[b] hurt.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 8:8 Or over the human spirit to retain it, / and so
  2. Ecclesiastes 8:9 Or to their