A generation goes and a generation comes,
But the earth remains forever.

I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.

The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I know that one fate befalls them both.

I said to myself concerning the sons of men, “God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.”

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.

But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.

For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.

When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

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,

For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot,
So is the laughter of the fool;
And this too is futility.

For wisdom is protection just as money is protection,
But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.

In the day of prosperity be happy,
But in the day of adversity consider—
God has made the one as well as the other
So that man will not discover anything that will be after him.

I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.

Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

But it will not be well for the evil man and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God.

For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.

But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left.

He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall.

So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.

But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.