⁸ Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all, yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.^(A)

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “The light is in you^[a] for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.

¹⁴ In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that comes after them.^(A)

12 Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; ² before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with^[a] the rain; ³ in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; ⁴ when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;^{(A) 5} when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along,^[b] and the caper bud falls; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets;^(B)

¹⁸ for they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.”^(A)

¹⁵ So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.^(A)

¹² Though sinners do evil a hundred times and prolong their lives, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they stand in fear before him,^(A)