⁷ Since no one knows the future,
    who can tell someone else what is to come?

²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
    to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things^(A)
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
    and the madness of folly.^(B)

¹² The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
    whether they eat little or much,
but as for the rich, their abundance
    permits them no sleep.^(A)

⁸ There was a man all alone;
    he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
    yet his eyes were not content^(A) with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
    “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
    a miserable business!