¹There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it is great, resting heavily on man.

²A man to whom God gives wealth and riches and weightiness, and nothing is lacking to his being from all that he desires; but God does not give him power to eat from it, for a foreign man eats it; this is vapor and an evil sickness.

³If a man fathers a hundred, and lives many years, and many are the days of his years, but his being is not satisfied with the good, and also he has no grave; I say the stillborn is better than him.

⁴For in vapor it came, and in darkness it goes, and in darkness its name is covered.

⁵Also it has not seen the sun, and it has not known; this one has more rest than that one.

⁶And if he lived a thousand years two times over, and he did not see good, do not all go to one place?

⁷All the toil of man is for his mouth, and also the being will not be filled.

⁸For what advantage has the wise over the fool? What has the poor man who knows how to walk before the living?

⁹Better is the sight of the eyes than the going of the being; also this is vapor, and a striving after wind.

¹⁰Whatever has been, its name has already been called; and it is known that he is man; and he is not able to plead the cause with one who is mightier than he.

¹¹For there are many words that multiply vapor; what advantage is there for man?

¹²For who knows what is good for man in life, the number of the days of the life of his vapor, and he makes them like a shadow, because who will tell man what will be after him under the sun?