I also amassed silver and gold for myself, as well as valuable treasures taken from kingdoms and provinces. I acquired male singers and female singers for myself, and what gives a man sensual delight -- a harem of beautiful concubines!

Next, I decided to consider wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. For what more can the king's successor do than what the king has already done?

I realized that wisdom is preferable to folly, just as light is preferable to darkness:

For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; however, he must hand over the fruit of his labor as an inheritance to someone else who did not work for it. This also is futile, and an awful injustice!

A time to search, and a time to give something up as lost; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

I have concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live,

For the fate of humans and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath. There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting.

I considered all the living who walk on earth, as well as the successor who would arise in his place.

Just as dreams come when there are many cares, so the rash vow of a fool occurs when there are many words.

Just as there is futility in many dreams, so also in many words. Therefore, fear God!

Just as he came forth from his mother's womb, naked will he return as he came, and he will take nothing in his hand that he may carry away from his toil.

This is another misfortune: Just as he came, so will he go. What did he gain from toiling for the wind?

Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these days?" for it is not wise to ask that.

For wisdom provides protection, just as money provides protection. But the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

In times of prosperity be joyful, but in times of adversity consider this: God has made one as well as the other, so that no one can discover what the future holds.

Just as no one has power over the wind to restrain it, so no one has power over the day of his death. Just as no one can be discharged during the battle, so wickedness cannot rescue the wicked.

Not only that, but I have seen the wicked approaching and entering the temple, and as they left the holy temple, they boasted in the city that they had done so. This also is an enigma.

So I reflected on all this, attempting to clear it all up. I concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their works, are in the hand of God; whether a person will be loved or hated -- no one knows what lies ahead.

What they loved, as well as what they hated and envied, perished long ago, and they no longer have a part in anything that happens on earth.

Just as you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones form in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the life's breath returns to God who gave it.