A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

If a man has a hundred children, and his life is long so that the days of his years are great in number, but his soul takes no pleasure in good, and he is not honoured at his death; I say that a birth before its time is better than he.

for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;

moreover it hath not seen the sun nor known it; this hath rest rather than the other:

Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?

What the eyes see [enjoying what is available] is better than [craving] what the soul desires. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.

That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.

Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?

For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

It is better to be sorry than to laugh, for when the countenance is heavy the heart is joyful.

It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.

Whoso doeth wrong, maketh a wise man to go out of his wit, and destroyeth a gentle heart.

The end of a matter is better than its beginning;
Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit (pride).

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

Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.

For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.

Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what he hath made crooked?

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yea, God hath made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything that shall be after him.

I have seen it all during my pointless life: both a righteous person who dies while he is righteous, and a wicked person who lives to an old age, while remaining wicked.

Do not excel at wickedness, nor be a fool. Why die before your time?

It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all.

All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.

That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?

I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

And I find bitter above death the woman that her heart it is snares and nets, her hands are bonds: the good one before God shall escape from her, and he sinning shall be taken by her.

Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:

Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

Who is wise? Who hath knowledge to make an answer? Wisdom maketh a man's face to shine, but malice putteth it out of favour.

I said , The bidding of the king, observe thou, even out of regard to the oath of God.

Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

Whoever keeps and observes a royal command will experience neither trouble nor misery;
For a wise heart will know the proper time and [appropriate] procedure.

For, to every pursuit, there is a time and a manner, - when, the vexation of man, is great concerning it.

For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

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.

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out of the holy place [but did not thereby escape their doom], and they are [praised in spite of their evil and] soon forgotten in the city where they did such things. This too is futility (vanity, emptiness).

Because sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the heart of {humans} fills up within them to do evil.

Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

When I dedicated myself to experience wisdom and to observe what is undertaken on earth even going without sleep day and night

Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it be love or hatred, man knoweth it not; all is before them.

Everything is the same for everyone: there is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as for the one who takes an oath, so for the one who fears an oath.

This is an evil among all that hath been done under the sun, that one event is to all, and also the heart of the sons of man is full of evil, and madness is in their heart during their life, and after it -- unto the dead.

But to him who is joined unto all the living there is confidence, for to a living dog it is better than to the dead lion.

At least the living know they will die, but the dead know nothing; they no longer have a reward, since memory about them has been forgotten.

What they loved and hated, as well as what they desired, has already perished. They no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.

See life with the wife whom thou hast loved, all the days of the life of thy vanity, that He hath given to thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity, for it is thy portion in life, even of thy labour that thou art labouring at under the sun.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:

There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:

Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.

So I concluded that wisdom [is] better than might, yet the wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard.

Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to send forth an evil odor;'so doth a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor.

A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left.

Even when a fool walks along the road he lacks sense, and shows everyone what a fool he is.

If your overseer gets angry at you, don't resign, because calmness pacifies great offenses.

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as it were an error which proceedeth from the ruler:

I see servants ride upon horses, and princes going upon their feet as it were servants.

He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.

If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.

If the serpent bite before it is charmed, then is there no advantage in the charmer.

The words out of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will destroy himself.

He begins by saying what is foolish and ends by uttering what is wicked delusion.

A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?

The fool is so worn out by a hard day's work {he cannot even find his way home at night}.

Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!

Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

Through slothfulness the balks fall down, and through idle hands it raineth in at the house.

The officials make a feast for enjoyment [instead of repairing what is broken], and serve wine to make life merry, and money is the answer to everything.

Say not a curse against the king, even in your thoughts; and even secretly say not a curse against the man of wealth; because a bird of the air will take the voice, and that which has wings will give news of it.

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.

If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

One who watches the wind will not sow,
and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap.

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

In the morning sow thy seed, And at even withdraw not thy hand, For thou knowest not which is right, this or that, Or whether both of them alike are good.

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:

But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart gladden thee in the days of thine early manhood, and walk thou - in the ways of thine own heart, and in that which is seen by thine own eyes, - yet know, that, for all these things, will God bring thee into judgment.

Put away displeasure out of thine heart, and remove evil from thy body: for childhood and youth is but vanity.

Yet remember thy Creator, in the days of thy vigour, - or ever come in, the days of discomfort, and the years arrive, in which thou shalt say - I have, in them, no pleasure;

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

they are also afraid of what is high, and terrors are in the way, and the almond is despised, and the grasshopper is a burden, and the caper-berry is without effect; (for man goeth to his age-long home, and the mourners go about the streets;)

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.