A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.

There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after.

The Futility of Self-Indulgence

I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.

Wisdom and Joy Given to One Who Pleases God

So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what he has already done.

The wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness; and yet I perceived that one fate comes to all of them.

For of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise man dies just like the fool!

I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me;

Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

there was no end of all the people; he was over all of them. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.

For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;

Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.

It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand; for he who fears God shall come forth from them all.

Take Life as It Comes

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate man does not know. Everything before them is vanity,

since one fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good man, so is the sinner; and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that one fate comes to all; also the hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;