I saw all the works that are done under the sun. Look! Everything [is] vanity and chasing wind.

All his days [are] painful, his labor [brings] grief, and his heart cannot rest at night. This also [is] vanity!

I said to myself concerning {humans}, "God sifts them in order to show them that they are like beasts."

For the fate of {humans} and the fate of the beast is {the same}. The death of the one is like the death of the other, for {both are mortal}. Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting.

I looked again, and I saw all the oppression that occurs under the sun. {I saw the tears of the oppressed-- no one comforts them! Those who oppress them are powerful-- no one can comfort them}!

So I deemed the dead who have already died more [fortunate] than the living who are still alive.

But better [off] than both of them is the one who has not yet been born and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

Two [are] better than the one, for they enjoy a better reward for their toil.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; draw near to listen [rather] than to offer a sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.

Do not be rash with your mouth, and do not let your heart be quick to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you [are] on earth; therefore, let your words be few.

Do not be surprised if you see the poor being oppressed with violence or [do not see] justice and righteousness in the province. For one official is watched by a higher official, and [there are] even higher officials over them!

Even if a man fathers a hundred [children] and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, if his heart is not satisfied with {his prosperity} and {he does not receive a proper burial}, I deem the stillborn better than him.

For who knows what [is] good for a man in his life during the few days of his fleeting life, which are fleeting as a shadow? For who can tell anyone what will happen {in the future} under the sun?

Wisdom gives more strength to the wise than ten rulers who are in the city.

I myself found [that] more bitter than death [is] the woman who [is] a trap, whose heart [is] a snare, and whose hands [are] bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.

Since the word of the king [is] supreme, no one can say to him, "What are you doing?"

So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, [are] in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will [come] to them, whether [it will be] love or hatred.

This [is] the {injustice} that is done under the sun: the same fate [comes] to everyone. Also the hearts of {humans} are full [of] evil; delusion [is] in their hearts during their lives, and then they die.

Whatever your hand finds to do--do [it] with [all] your might; for in Sheol--where you are going--no one works, plans, knows, or thinks about anything.

For man does not know his time. Just as fish are caught in a cruel net and like birds who are seized in a snare, so also {humans} are ensnared at a cruel time when it falls suddenly upon them.

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

The words of the wise are heard in peace [more] than the shouting of a ruler [is heard] among the fools.

Blessed are you, O land, when your king is a son of nobility and your princes feast at the proper time-- to gain strength and not to get drunk.

{Feasts are held for celebration}, wine cheers the living, and money answers everything.

When the clouds are full, they empty rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or whether it falls to the north, the place where the tree falls--there it will be.

Banish anxiety from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and vigor [are] vanity.

When the guards of the house tremble, and the men of strength are bent; the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows see dimly.

When the doors on the street are shut, when the sound of the grinding mill is low; one rises up to the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low.

They are afraid of heights, and terrors [are] on the road. The almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper draws itself along, and desire fails because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about in the streets.

The words of the wise [are] like cattle goads; the collections of the sages [are] like pricks inflicted by one shepherd.