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Since no one knows what will be,
    who can tell when it will happen?
No one has authority over the wind to restrain it,
    nor authority over the day of death.
As no one is discharged during a battle,
    so wickedness cannot rescue its master.

I have seen all this while applying my mind to everything done under the sun: sometimes one person dominates another person to his own harm.

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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