Study Desk

I have seen all the living, who are walking under the sun, with the second youth who doth stand in his place;

In the multiplying of good have its consumers been multiplied, and what benefit [is] to its possessor except the sight of his eyes?

There is a painful evil I have seen under the sun: wealth kept for its possessor, for his evil.

And that wealth hath been lost in an evil business, and he hath begotten a son and there is nothing in his hand!

As he came out from the belly of his mother, naked he turneth back to go as he came, and he taketh not away anything of his labour, that doth go in his hand.

Also all his days in darkness he consumeth, and sadness, and wrath, and sickness abound.

Lo, that which I have seen: [It is] good, because beautiful, to eat, and to drink, and to see good in all one's labour that he laboureth at under the sun, the number of the days of his life that God hath given to him, for it [is] his portion.

Every man also to whom God hath given wealth and riches, and hath given him power to eat of it, and to accept his portion, and to rejoice in his labour, this is a gift of God.

For he doth not much remember the days of his life, for God is answering through the joy of his heart.

A man to whom God giveth wealth, and riches, and honour, and there is no lack to his soul of all that he desireth, and God giveth him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eateth it; this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.

If a man doth beget a hundred, and live 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 hath not had a grave, I have said, `Better than he [is] the untimely birth.'

For in vanity he came in, and in darkness he goeth, and in darkness his name is covered,

All the labour of man [is] for his mouth, and yet the soul is not filled.

For who knoweth what [is] good for a man in life, the number of the days of the life of his vanity, and he maketh them as a shadow? for who declareth to man what is after him under the sun?

Better to go unto a house of mourning, Than to go unto a house of banqueting, For that is the end of all men, And the living layeth [it] unto his heart.

The whole I have considered in the days of my vanity. There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wrong-doer prolonging [himself] in his wrong.

Who [is] as the wise? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of man causeth his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

Be not troubled at his presence, thou mayest go, stand not in an evil thing, for all that he pleaseth he doth.

All this I have seen so as to give my heart to every work that hath been done under the sun; a time that man hath ruled over man to his own evil.

And I have praised mirth because there is no good to man under the sun except to eat and to drink, and to rejoice, and it remaineth with him of his labour the days of his life that God hath given to him under the sun.