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Everything is so meaningless. The Teacher says that it is all a waste of time![a] Do people really gain anything from all the hard work they do in this life[b]?

Things Never Change

People live and people die, but the earth continues forever.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 1:2 meaningless … a waste of time The Hebrew word means “vapor or breath” or “something that is useless, meaningless, empty, wrong, or a waste of time.”
  2. Ecclesiastes 1:3 in this life Literally, “under the sun.” Also in verses 9, 13.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”(A)

What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?(B)
Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.(C)

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