Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

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

Pleasures Are Meaningless

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.

For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die!

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.

All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

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.

The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom.

A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool.

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.

This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?

It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded.

Obey the King

Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.

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?

Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

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.

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.

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.

All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good, so with the sinful; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

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.