I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

I said to myself, “Look, I have amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge.”

So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” And I said to myself that this is also futile.

There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand,

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

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.

I have seen that there is nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities because that is his reward. For who can enable him to see what will happen after he dies?

Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them.

So I admired the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive.

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts.

There is a sickening tragedy I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

Here is what I have seen to be good: it is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.

Here is a tragedy I have observed under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity:

A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

What advantage then does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?

In my futile life I have seen everything: there is a righteous man who perishes in spite of his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in spite of his evil.

for you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.

“Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation,

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.”

All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun.

I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me:

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, an error proceeding from the presence of the ruler:

I have seen slaves on horses,
but princes walking on the ground like slaves.

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”;