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¹ There is also another evil, which I have seen under the sun, and that frequent among men:² 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 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 For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.⁵ He hath not seen the sun, nor known the distance of good and evil:⁶ Although he lived two thousand years, and hath not enjoyed good things: do not all make haste to one place?

⁷ All the labour of man is for his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled.⁸ What hath the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go thither, where there is life?⁹ 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 He that shall be, his name is already called: and it is known, that he is a man, and cannot contend in judgment with him that is stronger than himself.

¹¹ There are many words that have much vanity in disputing.¹² For who [ [fn] limited to human wisdom] knows what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow [going through the motions but accomplishing nothing]? For who can tell a man what will happen [to his work, his treasure, his plans] under the sun after he is gone?