I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.”

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

Advancement Is Meaningless

Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning.

Fulfill Your Vow to God

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

What advantage have the wise over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?

Whatever exists has already been named, and what humanity is has been known; no one can contend with someone who is stronger.

For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?

Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.

for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things? A person’s wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance.

Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

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

Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—

then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

A Common Destiny for All

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.