New Living Translation (NLT)
Ecclesiastes 3
14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.
15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.
16 I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt!
17 I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
18 I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals.
19 For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!
20 Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
21 For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why we are here! No one will bring us back from death to enjoy life after we die.
Ecclesiastes 4
1 Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless.
2 So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living.
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