²A man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and honour, and his soul wanteth nothing of all that he desireth: yet God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This is vanity and a great misery.

³If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, and attain to a great age, and his soul make no use of the goods of his substance, and he be without burial: of this man I pronounce, that the untimely born is better than he.

⁴For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.

⁵He hath not seen the sun, nor known the distance of good and evil:

⁶Although he lived two thousand years, and hath not enjoyed good things: do not all make haste to one place?

⁷All the labour of man is for his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled.

⁸What hath the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go thither, where there is life?

⁹Better it is to see what thou mayst desire, than to desire that which thou canst not know. But this also is vanity, and presumption of spirit.

¹⁰He that shall be, his name is already called: and it is known, that he is a man, and cannot contend in judgment with him that is stronger than himself.

¹¹There are many words that have much vanity in disputing.

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