Study Desk

So I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his work, for that is all he can do. Who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

I have seen that all the work done is because a man wants what his neighbor has. This also is for nothing, like trying to catch the wind.

The fool folds his hands and has no food to eat.

There was a certain man who lived alone. He did not have a son or a brother. Yet he worked all the time. His eyes were never happy with the riches he had, and he never asked, "For whom am I working and why am I keeping myself from happiness?" This also is for nothing. It is work that brings sorrow.

A man can come out of prison to become king, even if he was born poor in his nation.

I have seen all the living under the sun gather to the side of the boy who becomes king in his place.

When there are more good things, there are also more people to eat them. So what does their owner get except to see them with his eyes?

A man comes from his mother without clothing, and he will go as he came. He will take nothing from his work that he can carry in his hand.

All his life he eats in darkness with much sorrow, sickness and anger.

This is what I have seen to be good and right: to eat and to drink and be happy in all the work one does under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him. For this is his reward.

As for every man to whom God has given riches and many good things, He has also given him the power to eat from them, receive his reward and be happy in his work. This is the gift of God.

For he will not think much about the years of his life, because God keeps him happy in his heart.

All a man's work is for his mouth, and yet his hunger is not filled.

For who knows what is good for a man during his life, during the few years of his living for nothing? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will happen after he is gone under the sun?

In the days of my life I have seen everything, but my life has been worth nothing. There is a right and good man who is destroyed while he is right and good. And there is a sinful man who lives long in his wrong-doing.

Who is like the wise man? And who understands the meaning of anything? A man's wisdom makes his face shine. The hard look on his face is changed.

No man has the right and power to hold back the wind with the wind, or power over the day of his death. No man is free to leave in the time of war. And sin will not take the sinner out of trouble.

But it will not go well for the sinful man. His days will not be long like a shadow, because he does not fear God.

So I say a man should enjoy himself. For there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and drink and be happy. For this will be with him in his work through the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

Man does not know his time. Like fish caught in a bad net, and birds caught in a trap, so men are trapped at a bad time when trouble comes upon them when they do not expect it.