1There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it [is] common among men: 2A man to whom God-Elohim (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] has given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wants nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God-Elohim (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] gives him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eats it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease. 3If a man beget (to be father of; be ancestor of) an hundred [children], and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also [that] he have no burial; I say, [that] an untimely birth [is] better than he. 4For he comes in with vanity, and departs in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. 5Moreover he has not seen the sun, nor known [anything]: this has more rest than the other. 6Yes, though he live a thousand years twice [told], yet has he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

7All the labour of man [is] for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. 8For what has the wise more than the fool? what has the poor, that knows to walk before the living? 9Better [is] the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this [is] also vanity and anguish of spirit.

10That which has been is named already, and it is known that it [is] man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he. 11Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what [is] man the better? 12For who knows what [is] good for man in [this] life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?