Study Desk

The fool folds his hands together and suffers hunger.

When there is but one man, and not a second, and he has neither son nor brother, there is no end to all his labor. Neither are his eves satisfied with riches; neither does he say, For whom am I laboring and denying myself good things? This is also vanity, and a grievous vexation.

For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls; for there is none to lift him up.

Out of prison he has come to reign, because also in his own kingdom he had been born miserable.

Moreover the riches of the earth are for all; the king, himself, is served by cultivating his own field.

There is also another grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, riches kept by the owner thereof to his own hurt.

And those riches are lost in a bad venture; for when he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

As he came forth from his mothers womb, naked shall he return to the earth to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.

All his days also he eats in darkness, in much anger and wrath, in mourning and in sickness.

This is what I, the Preacher, have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor for which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which the LORD has given him; for this is his portion.

To every man also the LORD has given riches and wealth, and has given power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

For he shall remember no more the days of his life; because God will keep him busy with the joy of his heart.

There is a man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to eat of them; but a stranger eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

If a man beget a hundred children and live a multitude of years so that the days of his years are many, and his soul is not filled with good things, and also that he have no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than he.

For he comes in with vanity, and shall go into darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

All the labor of a man is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not filled.

For who knows what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

A GOOD name is better than a precious ointment; and the day of ones death than the day of his birth.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for this is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

All things have I seen in the days of my vanity; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.