Wealth a man never gets to eat
1There is an evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on man: 2a man to whom God gives riches, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all he desires; and yet God does not empower him to eat from it, but a foreigner eats it. This is a breath, and a sickening evil. 3If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years — many indeed, the days of his years — but his appetite is not satisfied with the good, and he has no burial besides, I say the stillborn child is better off than he. 4For he came in a breath and goes into darkness, and in darkness his name is covered. 5He has not even seen the sun, nor known anything; yet he has more rest than the other. 6Even if the man lived a thousand years twice over but saw no good — do not all go to one place? 7All a man’s toil is for his mouth, and still his appetite is not filled. 8For what gain has the wise man over the fool? What has the poor man who knows how to walk before the living? 9Better the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite. This too is a breath and a chasing after wind. 10Whatever has come to be, its name was called long ago, and it is known what a man is: he cannot contend with one stronger than himself. 11There are many words that only multiply breath — what is the gain to a man? 12For who knows what is good for a man in life, for the number of the days of his breath of a life, which he spends like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
