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Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
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I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.”
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I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
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I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
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So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
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Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.
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There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
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Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
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What advantage have the wise over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?
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Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool— why die before your time?
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Obey the King
Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.
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Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
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If a snake bites before it is charmed, the charmer receives no fee.
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Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—
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before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;
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Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well,
