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| 1 For all this I laid to my heart and indeed to investigate all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; man knoweth neither love nor hatred: all is before them. |
No man knoweth – He could not tell certainly from the book of nature whether God loved or hated them. R1532:6
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| 2 All things come alike to all: one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean, 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. |
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| 3 This is an evil among all that is done under the sun, that one thing befalleth all: yea, also the heart of the children of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live; and after that, they have to go to the dead. |
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| 4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. |
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| 5 For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. |
For the living – Even the least intelligent. E347
But the dead – When man dies his personality, the result of his heredity and pre-natal influences combined with his experiences, perishes; for it cannot exist without a body. R5166:2
Death is an actual extinction of being but not the annihilation of matter, which is indestructible. R1377:6
Know not any thing – Thus neither Dorcas, nor Lazarus, nor the widow of Nain, nor Jairus' daughter had any wonderful experiences or mysterious visions to relate. R1450:5
Thus Jesus could do no preaching while dead, nor the antediluvians any listening. R1679:1, R4176:6; HG727:5
Whoever knows this is fortified against all the deceptions of the evil spirits. SM197:T
All, good and bad, go down to the tomb, to sheol, hades, called in our Bibles, hell. They are experiencing neither joy nor sorrow, pleasure nor suffering awaiting the resurrection. OV362:3; R4551:5, R5131:3,6; SM115:1, SM197:T, CR21:1
The resurrection of the dead is an absolute necessity to any future life or hope or blessing. R5579:2, R5673:6,3; SM99:2
Contrary to the teachings of Spiritism. R2170:2, R3741:3, R3387:2, R4521:2, R5378:2
The various manifestations of Spiritism come not from dead men. R4521:2
Only the Bible teaches that the dead are dead--all other religions teach that death is a deception. R4410:3
During the Jewish age God guarded his typical people against delusions and lying spirits of devils. R1642:6
Is Forgotten – Is very generally forgotten. E347
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| 6 Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy is already perished; neither have they any more for ever a portion in all that is done under the sun. |
Is now perished – "In that very day his thoughts perish." (Psa. 146:4) R5166:2[R5166]
A condition of peaceful unconsciousness. R2172:3[R2172]
Any more a portion – An interest. E347[E347]
Forever – Olam, for a long, indefinite period. E347[E347]
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| 7 Go, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God hath already accepted thy works. |
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| 8 Let thy garments be always white, and let not thy head lack oil. |
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| 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity; for that is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherein thou art labouring under the sun. |
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| 10 Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest. |
With thy might – We should be actively engaged in doing some good according to our talents and opportunities because we are all hastening to sheol, to the tomb. SM28:T
Solomon shows in this verse that the absence of natural wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel and might, brings physical death; the same is true applied spiritually. See comments on Ex. 30:23, 24. R4093:5*
Act quickly therefore; the time is short. R5127:5
There is no work – Good or bad, praising or cursing. E368
"The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." (Psa. 115:17) R2599:2
The condition of the dead is one of total unconsciousness. R4794:1,4, R4792:1, R4551:5, R5303:1
The world in general, including infants, will be raised just as they went down, excepting infirmity and disease. R631:5
Therefore the dead will not be required to aid or co-operate in their awakening from the graves, for the can neither assent to nor oppose their awakening. R1509:5
Opportunities now afforded should be exercised to the fullest, for to each one will come a night time when these will pass, as one passes into death. R4149:3
In the literal grave. This does not apply to those merely reckoned dead, but alive as New Creatures in Christ. Q760:1
Nor device – Planning good, or thinking ill. E368
These four--wisdom, knowledge, device (understanding) and works (results of workmanship) relate to the same four elements in Exo. 31:3 and Isa. 11:2, and to the four ingredients of the holy anointing oil. R4093:5, 2*
Nor knowledge – Holy knowledge or unholy knowledge. E368
"His sons come to honor and he knoweth it not." (Job 14:21) A210
The suggestion that the moment of death is the moment of greater life is of the Adversary. OV215:T
As mankind goes into death, so shall they come out of it; for in it they shall have learned nothing. R721:6, R5167:2
In the grave – Sheol, oblivion, death, not torment. E348, E368, R4551:6, R4162:5, R2599:2; SM115:1, SM525:2
Since God will "have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:4); and since mankind have didead. A106
Since the state of death is an entire suspension of being, man's probation or trial must occur, not in death, but before death or after it has ended--in the resurrection. R902:3*, R2612:2
Whither thou – The soul, the sentient being. E348
Goest – Whether wicked or righteous before death. E368; OV362:3
God has prepared for the awakening of the dead in order to knowledge, faith and salvation. OV177:3, OV226:T, A106
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| 11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to the intelligent, nor yet favour to men of knowledge; but time and chance happeneth to them all. |
Not to the...strong – The Lord may grant his blessing with the feebly spoken word if the life be in harmony with the message given out. R4968:5
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| 12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are taken with the snare, like them are the children of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. |
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| 13 This also have I seen as wisdom under the sun, and it was great unto me. |
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| 14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and encompassed it, and built great bulwarks against it: |
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| 15 and there was found in it a poor wise man, who by his wisdom delivered the city; but no man remembered that poor man. |
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| 16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength; but the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. |
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| 17 The words of the wise are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. |
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| 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroyeth much good. |
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