⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work?

³ What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?

¹⁶ And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind.

²⁶ And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?^[a] Is anything worth more than your soul?

²² So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? ²³ Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.

¹¹ But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.