| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: | 1There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. |
| 2a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. | 2God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy. |
| 3If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. | 3A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead. |
| 4For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. | 4His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name, |
| 5Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. | 5and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man. |
| 6Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place? | 6He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else—well, what’s the use? |
| 7All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. | 7All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough. |
| 8For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? | 8So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others? |
| 9Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind. | 9Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind. The Future—Determined and Unknown |
| 10Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. | 10Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny. |
| 11The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? | 11The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they? |
| 12For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? | 12In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone? |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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