“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

Is there anything of which one might say,
“See this, it is new”?
Already it has existed for ages
Which were before us.

Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he,

Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

“Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

I say, “Keep the command of the king because of the oath before God.

Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.

and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”;

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!”