I applied my mind to seek and to search by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. It [is] a grievous task God has given to {humans}.

I also {explored} {the effects of indulging my flesh} with wine. My mind guiding me with wisdom, {I investigated} folly so that I might discover what [is] good under heaven for {humans} to do {during the days of their lives}.

There is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and {find delight} in his toil. For I also realized that this [is] from the hand of God!

For to the person who [is] good in his eyes, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and heaping up only to give [it] to [him who is] pleasing to him. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

I have seen the busyness God gives to {humans} to preoccupy them.

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.

And for anyone to eat and drink, that is, {to enjoy the fruit of all his toil}, this also is a gift of God.

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.

What is--it already was, and what will be--it already is, for {God will do what he has done.}

So I said {to myself}, "God will surely judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time [of judgment] for every deed and every work."

I said to myself concerning {humans}, "God sifts them in order to show them that they are like beasts."

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.

Do not be rash with your mouth, and do not let your heart be quick to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you [are] on earth; therefore, let your words be few.

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

Do not let your mouth lead your flesh into sin, and do not tell the messenger that it [was] a mistake. Why anger God at your words, so that he destroys the work of your hands?

For with many dreams [come] vanities and numerous words. Therefore, fear God!

Look! I have discovered what is good and fitting: to eat and to drink and {to enjoy} all [the fruit of] the toil with which one toils under the sun during the number of the days of his life that God gives to him--for this [is] his lot.

This indeed is a gift of God: everyone to whom God gives wealth and possessions, he also empowers him {to enjoy them}, to accept his lot, and to rejoice in [the fruit of] his toil.

For he does not remember the [brief] days of his life, for God keeps his heart preoccupied with enjoyment [of life].

God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; yet God does not enable him to enjoy it--instead someone else ends up enjoying it. This [is] vanity--indeed, it [is] a grievous ill!

For who knows what [is] good for a man in his life during the few days of his fleeting life, which are fleeting as a shadow? For who can tell anyone what will happen {in the future} under the sun?

A good name [is] better than precious ointment, and the day of death [is better] than the day of one's birth.

Sorrow [is] better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made good.

Wisdom [is] good with an inheritance; {it benefits the living}.

Consider the work of God. For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?

In the day of prosperity, rejoice! But in the day of adversity, consider! For God made one in place of another so that mortals cannot find out what will happen {in the future}.

[It is] good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other; for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.

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

I myself found [that] more bitter than death [is] the woman who [is] a trap, whose heart [is] a snare, and whose hands [are] bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.

Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes."

Keep [the] command of [the] king {because of your oath to God}.

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}.

So I recommend enjoyment. For there [is] nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gives to him under the sun.

Then I saw all the work of God--man [is] not able to discover the work that is done under the sun. Although man may toil in seeking, he cannot find it. Even if a wise man claims [that he] knows it, he cannot find it.

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.

The same fate [comes] to everyone: to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to those who sacrifice and to those who do not sacrifice. As [with] the good [man], so also to the sinner; [as with] those who swear an oath, so [also] those who fear oaths.

Go--eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart! For God already has approved your deeds.

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

Blessed are you, O land, when your king is a son of nobility and your princes feast at the proper time-- to gain strength and not to get drunk.

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.

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.

And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.

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.

For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.