I communed with mine own heart, saying, "Lo, I am come to a great estate, and have gotten more wisdom, than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem." Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge,

For the wise are ever as little in remembrance as the foolish, and all the days for to come shall be forgotten, yea the wise man dieth as well as the fool.

Yea, I was weary of all my labour, which I had taken under the Sun, because I should be fain to leave them unto another man, that cometh after me.

Is it not better then for a man to eat and drink, and his soul to be merry in his labour? Yea I saw that this also was a gift of God:

He giveth unto man, what it pleaseth him; whether it be wisdom, understanding, or gladness. But unto the sinner he giveth weariness and sorrow, that he may gather and heap together the thing, that afterward shall be given unto him whom it pleaseth God. This is now a vain thing, yea a very disquietness and vexation of mind.

Every thing hath a time; yea, all that is under the heaven, hath his convenient season.

For all that a man eateth and drinketh, yea whatsoever a man enjoyeth of all his labor, the same is a gift of God.

For it happeneth unto men as it doth unto beasts, and as the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have both one manner of breath, so that - in this - a man hath no preeminence above a beast, but all are subdued unto vanity.

Yea, him that is yet unborn to be better at ease than they both, because he seeth not the miserable works that are done under the Sun.

Yea, though he lived two thousand years, yet hath he no good life. Come not all to one place?

Wisdom is better than riches; yea, much more worth than the eyesight.

yea, and so deep that I might not reach unto her.

I understood of all the works of God, that it is not possible for a man, to attain unto works that are done under the Sun: and though he bestow his labour to seek them out, yet can he not reach unto them: yea, though a wise man would undertake to know them, yet might he not find them.

For all these things purposed I in my mind to seek out. The righteous and wise, yea and their servants also are in the hand of God: and there is no man that knoweth either love or hate, but all things are before them.