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

There is no remembrance of those who came before;
and of those who will come after
there will also be no remembrance
by those who follow them.

Then I turned to consider wisdom, madness, and folly, for what will the man be like who comes after the king? He will do what has already been done.

The wise man has eyes in his head,
but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.

For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies just like the fool?

I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

There is no limit to all the people who were before them, yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

This too is a sickening tragedy: exactly as he comes, so he will go. What does the one gain who struggles for the wind?

For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man cannot discover anything that will come after him.

Indeed, if a man lives many years,
let him rejoice in them all,
and let him remember the days of darkness, since they will be many.
All that comes is futile.

So remember your Creator in the days of your youth:

Before the days of adversity come,
and the years approach when you will say,
“I have no delight in them”;