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4:1  Again I saw all the oppressions that take place under the sun: the tears of the victims with none to comfort them! From the hand of their oppressors comes violence, and there is none to comfort them!
4:2  And those now dead, I declared more fortunate in death than are the living to be still alive.
4:3  And better off than both is the yet unborn, who has not seen the wicked work that is done under the sun.
4:4  Then I saw that all toil and skillful work is the rivalry of one person with another. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.
4:5  “Fools fold their arms and consume their own flesh”—
4:6  Better is one handful with tranquility than two with toil and a chase after wind!
4:7  Again I saw this vanity under the sun:
4:8  those all alone with no companion, with neither child nor sibling—with no end to all their toil, and no satisfaction from riches. For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good things? This also is vanity and a bad business.
4:9  Two are better than one: They get a good wage for their toil.
4:10  If the one falls, the other will help the fallen one. But woe to the solitary person! If that one should fall, there is no other to help.
4:11  So also, if two sleep together, they keep each other warm. How can one alone keep warm?
4:12  Where one alone may be overcome, two together can resist. A three-ply cord is not easily broken.
4:13  Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows caution;
4:14  for from a prison house he came forth to reign; despite his kingship he was born poor.
4:15  I saw all the living, those who move about under the sun, with the second youth who will succeed him.
4:16  There is no end to all this people, to all who were before them; yet the later generations will not have joy in him. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.
4:17  Guard your step when you go to the house of God. Draw near for obedience, rather than for the fools’ offering of sacrifice; for they know not how to keep from doing evil.