All things toil continuously; no one can ever finish describing this. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, and the ear is never filled with hearing.

What has been--it is what will be; what has been done--it is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

There is a thing [of] which it is said, "Look at this! This is new!" [But] it already existed in ages past before us.

Certainly no one will remember the wise man or the fool in {future generations}. When [future] days come, both will have been forgotten already. How [is it that] the wise man dies the same as the fool?

He has made everything suitable in its time. He also has put {the past} in their hearts, yet no one can grasp what God does from the beginning to the end.

I know everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it, for God so acts that humans might stand in awe before him.

For the fate of {humans} and the fate of the beast is {the same}. The death of the one is like the death of the other, for {both are mortal}. Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting.

For no one knows [whether] the spirit of a human ascends [to heaven] and [whether] the spirit of the beast descends to the ground!

So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy [the fruit of] his labor, for this is his lot in life. {For no one knows what will happen in the future.}

I looked again, and I saw all the oppression that occurs under the sun. {I saw the tears of the oppressed-- no one comforts them! Those who oppress them are powerful-- no one can comfort them}!

Sometimes a man is all alone with no companion; he also has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eye is not satisfied with wealth. [He laments,] "For whom am I toiling and depriving {myself} of pleasure?" This also [is] vanity--it is an unhappy business!

For if one falls, his companion may help him up. But pity the one who falls and there is {no one} to help him up.

A poor but wise youth [is] better than an old but foolish king who no longer knows {how to receive advice}.

There is no end to all the people, to all who were before him. Yet the later generation will not rejoice in him, for this also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; draw near to listen [rather] than to offer a sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.

When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, for {he takes no pleasure} in fools. Fulfill what you vow!

Surely there is no one righteous on the earth who [continually] does good and never sins.

I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness [is] foolishness and that folly [is] delusion.

Since the word of the king [is] supreme, no one can say to him, "What are you doing?"

Surely no one knows what will be, so who can tell anyone what will happen?

Just as no one can control the wind to restrain the wind, so also no one can control the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not deliver the wicked.

Although the sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will be good for those who fear God--because they fear {his presence}.

But it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not prolong [their] days, like the shadow; because there is no fearing {God's presence}.

I applied my mind to know wisdom and to understand the business that is done on earth--how neither day nor night one's eyes see sleep.

So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, [are] in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will [come] to them, whether [it will be] love or hatred.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

What they loved and hated, as well as what they desired, has already perished. They no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do--do [it] with [all] your might; for in Sheol--where you are going--no one works, plans, knows, or thinks about anything.

For man does not know his time. Just as fish are caught in a cruel net and like birds who are seized in a snare, so also {humans} are ensnared at a cruel time when it falls suddenly upon them.

Now, a poor wise man was found in it, and he delivered the city by his wisdom.

The fool {talks too much}, for no one knows what will be. Who can tell anyone what will happen {in the future}?

Divide your share in seven or in eight, for you do not know what disaster will happen on the earth.

Just as you do not know how the path of the wind [goes], nor how the bones [of a fetus] form in a mother's womb, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

Sow your seed in the morning, and do not let your hands rest in the evening, for you do not know what will prosper-- whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth! Follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes-- but know that God will bring you into judgment for all these things.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth-- before the days of trouble come and the years draw near when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them!"

Now that all has been heard, here is the final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commandments, for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.