¹⁸ I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. 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! ²⁰ Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. ²¹ For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?

¹⁰ And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. ¹¹ The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.

¹² People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy.

²⁴ As the Scriptures say,