Ecclesiastes

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"There Is No New Thing Under The Sun"

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Context: "The preacher," as the writer of Ecclesiastes terms himself, bases his philosophy upon the futility of life, "vanity of vanities; all is vanity." In spite of man's labor, he dies, a new generation arises, and nothing is accomplished. There is futility in the blowing of the wind, which only turns and blows the other way. The rivers flow to the sea, but the sea is not filled, and the moisture eventually returns to the source of the rivers from which it first sprang. Even as the author finds monotony in the workings of nature, so he also finds monotony in the activities of men:

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

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