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What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
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I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.
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Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
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Toil Is Meaningless
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
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I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
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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.
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So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
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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.
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What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?
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A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,
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What do workers gain from their toil?
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That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
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Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors— and they have no comforter.
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And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
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Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.
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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 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!
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Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.
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This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?
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This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.
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Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.
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Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied.
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So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
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Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.
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The toil of fools wearies them; they do not know the way to town.
