Part 414 (2/2)

2:20. Wherefore I left off and my heart renounced labouring anymore under the sun.

2:21. For when a man laboureth in wisdom, and knowledge, and carefulness, he leaveth what he hath gotten to an idle man: so this also is vanity, and a great evil.

2:22. For what profit shall a man have of all his labour, and vexation of spirit, with which he hath been tormented under the sun?

2:23. All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?

2:24. Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of G.o.d.

2:25. Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?

2:26. G.o.d hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased G.o.d: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.

Ecclesiastes Chapter 3

All human things are liable to perpetual changes. We are to rest on G.o.d's providence, and cast away fruitless cares.

3:1. All things have their season, and in their times all things pa.s.s under heaven.

3:2. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

3:3. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build.

3:4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.

3:5. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

3:6. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away.

3:7. A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

3:8. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace.

3:9. What hath man more of his labour?

3:10. I have seen the trouble, which G.o.d hath given the sons of men to be exercised in it.

3:11. He hath made all things good in their time, and hath delivered the world to their consideration, so that man cannot find out the work which G.o.d hath made from the beginning to the end.

3:12. And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life.

3:13. For every man that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of G.o.d.

3:14. I have learned that all the works which G.o.d hath made, continue for ever: we cannot add any thing, nor take away from those things which G.o.d hath made that he may be feared.

3:15. That which hath been made, the same continueth: the things that shall be, have already been: and G.o.d restoreth that which is past.

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