Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Do not allow thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, nor say thou before the [heavenly] agent, that is was an error. Why should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?

If a man begets a hundred sons, and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial, I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

Say thou not, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou do not inquire wisely concerning this.

Behold, I have found this, says the Preacher, [laying] one thing to another, to find out the account,

I [say], Keep the king's command, and that because of the oath of God.

For the king's word [has] power, and who may say to him, What are thou doing?

Yea also, when the fool walks by the way, his understanding fails him, and he says to everyone [that] he is a fool.

Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shall say, I have no pleasure in them,

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity.