Chapter 6

¹There is also another evil, which I have seen under the sun, and that frequent among men: ²A man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and honour, and his soul wanteth nothing of all that he desireth: yet God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This is vanity and a great misery. ³If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, and attain to a great age, and his soul make no use of the goods of his substance, and he be without burial: of this man I pronounce, that the untimely born is better than he. ⁴For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten. ⁵He hath not seen the sun, nor known the distance of good and evil: ⁶Although he lived two thousand years, and hath not enjoyed good things: do not all make haste to one place? ⁷All the labour of man is for his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled. ⁸What hath the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go thither, where there is life? ⁹Better it is to see what thou mayst desire, than to desire that which thou canst not know. But this also is vanity, and presumption of spirit. ¹⁰He that shall be, his name is already called: and it is known, that he is man, and cannot contend in judgment with him that is stronger than himself. ¹¹There are many words that have much vanity in disputing.