The God-Given Task
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What x gain has the worker from his toil?
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I have seen y the business that z God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
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He has a made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot b find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
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I perceived that there is c nothing better for them than to be joyful and to d do good as long as they live;
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also e that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil - this is f God's gift to man.
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I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; g nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
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That which is, h already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God i seeks what has been driven away.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 1:3
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 1:13
And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
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Cross References
Genesis 3:17 - 19
And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
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Cross References
Genesis 1:31
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 8:17
Then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.
Job 5:9
Who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:
Romans 11:33
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 3:22
So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
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Cross References
Psalms 34:14
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Psalms 37:3
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 2:24
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 2:24
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.
Ecclesiastes 5:19
Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil - this is the gift of God.
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Cross References
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 1:9
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.