¹⁴ For the wise can see where they are going, but fools walk in the dark.” Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate.

¹¹ I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.

¹¹ But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.

Death Comes to All

9 This, too, I carefully explored: Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God’s hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. ² The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad,^[a] ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t.

³ It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There is nothing ahead but death anyway.

¹⁹ For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe^[a] and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!

¹⁶ So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.