Can one say about anything,
“Look, this is new”?
It has already existed in the ages before us.

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.”

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.

And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.

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 said to myself, “This happens concerning people, so that God may test them and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”

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.

For who knows what is good for man in life, in the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell man what will happen after him under the sun?

for like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot,
so is the laughter of the fool.
This too is futile.

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

Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.

However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

For man certainly does not know his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.

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

The sayings of the wise are like goads, and those from masters of collections are like firmly embedded nails. The sayings are given by one Shepherd.