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.

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,

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.

So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

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.

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.

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?

It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.

Extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city.

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

For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.

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.