'People' in the Bible

What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth?

I applied my mind to seek and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven. God has given people this miserable task to keep them occupied.

I explored with my mind how to let my body enjoy life with wine and how to grasp folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

For sometimes people who strive to obtain wisdom, knowledge, and equity leave everything as an inheritance to a person who never worked for it. This, too, is pointless and greatly troublesome.

There is nothing better for people than to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in their work. I also perceived that this ability to find enjoyment comes from God.

I have seen the task that God has given people to keep them occupied.

God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.

I have concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live,

I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him.

I said to myself, “This happens concerning people, so that God may test them and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”

For the fate of people and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile.

Who knows if the spirit of people rises upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?

I concluded that it is worthwhile for people to find joy in their accomplishments, because that is their inheritance, since who can see what will exist after them?

Two people are better than one, because they can reap more benefit from their labor.

There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

I have seen personally what is the only beneficial and appropriate course of action for people: to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all their hard work on earth during the few days of their life which God has given them, for this is their reward.

Here is another misfortune that I have seen on earth, and it weighs heavily on people:

Whatever exists has been named already; people know what it means to be human and a person cannot defeat one who is more powerful than he.

Because many words lead to pointlessness, how do people benefit from this? 12Who knows what is best for people in this life, every day of their pointless lives that they pass through like a shadow? Who informs people on earth what will come along after them?

When times are good, be joyful; when times are bad, consider this: God made the one as well as the other, so people won't seek anything outside of his best.

Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,

which my soul continually searches for but does not find: among a thousand people I have found one true man, but among all these I have not found a true woman.

Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

While applying my mind to everything that happens in this world, I have seen all this: Sometimes one person dominates other people to their harm.

Because the sentence against a criminal act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit crime.

Although a sinner commits crime a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before Him.

There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: the righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands.People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live—after that they go to the dead.

For man certainly does not know his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.

[There was] a small city with few people in it. A great king came and besieged it, building great siege works against it.

And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.