Ecclesiastes 6
1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is hard on men;
There is also another evil, which I have seen under the sun, and that frequent among men:
2 A man to whom God gives money, wealth, and honour so that he has all his desires but God does not give him the power to have joy of it, and a strange man takes it. This is to no purpose and an evil disease.
A man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and honour, and his soul wanteth nothing of all that he desireth: yet God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This is vanity and a great misery.
3 If a man has a hundred children, and his life is long so that the days of his years are great in number, but his soul takes no pleasure in good, and he is not honoured at his death; I say that a birth before its time is better than he.
If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, and attain to a great age, and his soul make no use of the goods of his substance, and he be without burial: of this man I pronounce, that the untimely born is better than he.
4 In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the dark will its name be covered.
For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.
5 Yes, it saw not the sun, and it had no knowledge; it is better with this than with the other.
He hath not seen the sun, nor known the distance of good and evil:
6 And though he goes on living a thousand years twice over and does not see good, are not the two going to the same place?
Although he lived two thousand years, and hath not enjoyed good things: do not all make haste to one place?
7 All the work of man is for his mouth, and still he has a desire for food.
All the labour of man is for his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled.
8 What have the wise more than the foolish? and what has the poor man by walking wisely before the living?
What hath the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go thither, where there is life?
9 What the eyes see is better than the wandering of desire. This is to no purpose and a desire for wind.
Better it is to see what thou mayst desire, than to desire that which thou canst not know. But this also is vanity, and presumption of spirit.
10 That which is, has been named before, and of what man is there is knowledge. He has no power against one stronger than he.
He that shall be, his name is already called: and it is known, that he is man, and cannot contend in judgment with him that is stronger than himself.
11 There are words without number for increasing what is to no purpose, but what is man profited by them?
There are many words that have much vanity in disputing.
12 Who is able to say what is good for man in life all the days of his foolish life which he goes through like a shade? who will say what is to be after him under the sun?
What needeth a man to seek things that are above him, whereas he knoweth not what is profitable for him in his life, in all the days of his pilgrimage, and the time that passeth like a shadow? Or who can tell him what shall be after him under the sun?
