| New King James Version | New Living Translation |
| 1There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: | 1There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. |
| 2A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction. | 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 begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better 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 departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. | 4His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name, |
| 5Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, | 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 if he lives a thousand years twice—but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to 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 labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied. | 7All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough. |
| 8For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have, Who knows how to walk 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 desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the 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 one is, he has been named already, For it is known that he is man; And he cannot contend with Him who is mightier 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. |
| 11Since there are many things that increase vanity, How is man the better? | 11The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they? |
| 12For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen 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? |
| The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. 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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