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Both good and bad things happen to everyone.
    They happen to those who are fair and to those who are wicked.
They happen to those who are good and to those who are evil.
    They happen to those who sacrifice and to those who do not.
The same things happen to a good person
    as happen to a sinner.
The same things happen to a person who makes promises to God
    as to one who does not.

This is something unfair that happens here on earth. The same things happen to everyone. So men’s minds are full of evil and foolish thoughts while they live. After that, they join the dead. But anyone still alive has hope. Even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

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All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad,[a] the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
    so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
    so with those who are afraid to take them.(A)

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.(B) The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live,(C) and afterward they join the dead.(D) Anyone who is among the living has hope[b]—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 9:2 Septuagint (Aquila), Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew does not have and the bad.
  2. Ecclesiastes 9:4 Or What then is to be chosen? With all who live, there is hope