²⁴ There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,^{(A) 25} for apart from him^[a] who can eat or who can have enjoyment? ²⁶ For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.^(B)

The God-Given Task

⁹ What gain have the workers from their toil?^{(A) 10} I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.^{(B) 11} He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.^{(C) 12} I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³ moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. ¹⁴ I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it; God has done this so that all should stand in awe before him.^{(D) 15} That which is already has been, that which is to be already is, and God seeks out what has gone by.^[a](E)