1 By no outward thing can man know whom God loveth or hateth. 12 No man knoweth his end. 16 Wisdom excelleth strength.

I have surely given mine heart to all this, and to declare all this, that the just, and the wise, and their works are in the hand of God: and no man knoweth either love or [a]hatred of all that is before them.

All things come alike to all: and the same condition is to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the pure, and to the polluted, and to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner, he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

This is evil among all that is done under the sun, that there is one [b]condition to all, and also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 9:1 Meaning, what things he ought to choose or refuse: or man knoweth not by these outward things, that is, by prosperity or adversity, whom God doth favor or hate, for he sendeth them as well to the wicked as to the godly.
  2. Ecclesiastes 9:3 In outward things, as riches and poverty, sickness and health, there is no difference between the godly and the wicked: but the difference is that the godly are assured by faith of God’s favor and assistance.

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