Ecclesiastes 6

¹There is an evil that I have seen under the sun , and it lies heavy on mankind :

²a man to whom God gives wealth , possessions , and honor , so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires , yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity ; it is a grievous evil .

³If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years , so that the days of his years are many , but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things , and he also has no burial , I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

⁴For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness , and in darkness its name is covered .

⁵Moreover , it has not seen the sun or known anything , yet it rest rather than he.

⁶Even though he should live a thousand years twice over , yet enjoy no good —do not all go to the one place ?

⁷All the toil of man is for his mouth , yet his appetite is not satisfied .

⁸For what advantage has the wise over the fool ? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living ?

⁹Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite : this also is vanity and a striving after wind .

¹⁰Whatever 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.

¹¹The more words , the more vanity , and what is the advantage to man ?

¹²For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life , which he passes like a shadow ? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun ?