The futility of life
1
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it [is] great on man:
2
A man to whom God gives wealth, and riches, and honor, and there is no lack to his soul of all that he desires, and God does not give him power to eat of it, but a stranger eats it; this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.
3
If a man begets one hundred, and lives many years, and is great, because they are the days of his years, and his soul is not satisfied from the goodness, and also he has not had a grave, I have said, “Better than he [is] the untimely birth.”
4
For in vanity he came in, and in darkness he goes, and in darkness his name is covered,
5
even the sun he has not seen nor known, more rest has this than that.
6
And though he had lived one thousand years twice over, yet he has not seen good; does not everyone go to the same place?
7
All the labor of man [is] for his mouth, || And yet the soul is not filled.
8
For what advantage [is] to the wise above the fool? What to the poor who knows to walk before the living?
9
Better [is] the sight of the eyes than the going of the soul. This [is] also vanity and distress of spirit.
10
What [is] that which has been? Already is its name called, and it is known that it [is] man, || And he is not able to contend with him who is stronger than he.
11
For there are many things multiplying vanity; What advantage [is] to man?
12
For who knows what [is] good for a man in life, the number of the days of the life of his vanity, and he makes them as a shadow? For who declares to man what is after him under the sun?
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