Ecclesiastes 5:8-17

Good News Translation

Life Is Useless

⁸ Don't be surprised when you see that the government oppresses the poor and denies them justice and their rights. Every official is protected by someone higher, and both are protected by still higher officials.

⁹ Even a king depends on the harvest.^[a]

¹⁰ If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless. ¹¹ The richer you are, the more mouths you have to feed. All you gain is the knowledge that you are rich. ¹² Workers may or may not have enough to eat, but at least they can get a good night's sleep. The rich, however, have so much that they stay awake worrying.

¹³ Here is a terrible thing that I have seen in this world: people save up their money for a time when they may need it,^{[b] 14} and then lose it all in some bad deal and end up with nothing left to pass on to their children. ^15 (A)We leave this world just as we entered it—with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us. ¹⁶ It isn't right! We go just as we came. We labor, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get? ¹⁷ We get to live our lives in darkness and grief,^[c] worried, angry, and sick.