Ecclesiastes - Chapter 6

Wealth Can't Give Happiness

¹ There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it [is] common among men:

² A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil affliction.

³ If a man begets a hundred [children] and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say [that] a stillborn child [is] better than he --

⁴ for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.

⁵ Though it has not seen the sun or known [anything,] this has more rest than that man,

⁶ even if he lives a thousand years twice -- but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place?

⁷ All the labor of man [is] for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied.

Life's Riddles Can't Be Solved

⁸ For what more has the wise [man] than the fool? What does the poor man have, Who knows [how] to walk before the living?

⁹ Better [is] the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also [is] vanity and grasping for the wind.

¹⁰ Whatever one is, he has been named already, For it is known that he [is] man; And he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he.

¹¹ Since there are many things that increase vanity, How [is] man the better?

¹² For who knows what [is] good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?