CHAPTER 6

¹There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on humankind: ²a man whom God gives wealth and possessions and honor, and he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires, and God does not grant him to enjoy it, for a stranger will enjoy it. This is mere breath and an evil sickness. ³If a man begot a hundred children and lived many years, and many were the days of his life, he might yet not be sated with good things, and even a burial he might not have. I said: better than he is the stillborn. ⁴For in mere breath did it come, and into darkness it goes, and in darkness its name is covered. ⁵The very sun it did not see or know—more ease for it than for him. ⁶And were he to live a thousand years twice over, yet good things he did not enjoy—does not everything go to a single place? ⁷All a man’s toil is for his own mouth, yet his appetite will not be filled. ⁸For what advantage has the wise over the fool? What good is it for the poor man to know how to get round among the living? ⁹Better what the eyes see than desire going round. This, too, is mere breath and herding the wind. ¹⁰What was has already been called by name and is known, as he is man and cannot deal with one more powerful than he. ¹¹For there are many words that increase mere breath; what is the advantage for man? ¹²For who knows what is good for man in life, in his days of mere breath, for he spends them like a shadow? Who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?