¹There is an injustice which I have seen under the sun, and it is severe among mankind, ²about a man to whom God has given riches and property and honour, and whose heart does not lack anything he could wish for, but God does not allow him to eat from it, but a foreigner eats it. This is vanity and a grievous injustice. ³If a man begets a hundred children and lives for many years, and many are the days of his years, but his heart is not satisfied with the goodness, and also if he does not have a burial, I say that a miscarriage would have been better than that. ⁴For he arrives in vanity and departs in darkness, and in darkness his name is covered. ⁵And he did not see the sun or know about it. This one has more rest than the former. ⁶And even if he were to live a thousand years twice over but did not see goodness, is it not still the case that all go to the same place?

⁷All man's toil is for his mouth,

But his heart is nevertheless not fulfilled.

⁸For what does a wise man have

More than a fool?

And what advantage does a poor man have,

Knowing how to walk before the living?

⁹A sight seen by the eyes is better

Than a wandering mind.

This too is vanity and idle pursuit.

¹⁰What has taken place

Has already been called by its name.

And it is known that it is Adam,

And that he cannot contend

With him who is more powerful than he.

¹¹For there are many things that increase vanity,

But what is the advantage to man?

¹²For who knows what is good for man in life in the number of the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will take place after him under the sun?