1 There is another evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is very common among men: 2 A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honour so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but the strangers eat it; this is vanity, and it is an evil disease. 3 If a man begets a hundred sons and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, if his soul is not filled with good and also that he have no burial; I say that an aborted birth is better than he. 4 For he came in vain and departs unto darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. 5 Even though he has not seen the sun nor known any thing; this one has more rest than the other. 6 For though the other should live a thousand years twice and has not enjoyed good; both shall surely go to the same place.
7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and with all this the appetite is not filled. 8 For what has the wise more than the fool? what more has the poor that knows how to walk among the living? 9 It is better to enjoy the good that is present than the wandering of desire; this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
10 He that is has been named already; and it is known that he is man and that he shall not be able to contend with him that is mightier than he. 11 Certainly the many words multiply vanity, what more does man have? 12 For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of the life of his vanity which he causes to be as a shadow? for who shall teach the man what shall be after him under the sun?