Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) 6

¹ There is an evil I observe under the sun, that weighs men down:

² suppose has received from God riches, property, honours – nothing at all left him to wish for. Yet God does not give him the chance to enjoy them, but some stranger enjoys them. There is vanity here, and grievous suffering.

³ Or perhaps a man has had a hundred sons and as many daughters and lived for many years, and then derives no benefit from his estate, not even a tomb to call his own. Why then I say, better the untimely-born than he:

⁴ In darkness arriving, in darkness departing; even his name is wrapped in darkness.

⁵ Never seeing the sun, never knowing rest; the one no more than the other.

⁶ Even if the man had lived a thousand years twice over, without deriving profit from his estate, do not both alike go to the same place?

⁷ Man toils but to eat, yet his belly is never filled.

⁸ What advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what about the pauper who keeps up appearances before his fellow men?

⁹ Do appearances count more than the condition of the belly? This, too, is vanity and chasing of the wind.

¹⁰ What has been already has a name; and what man is, is known; he cannot dispute with one stronger than himself.

¹¹ The more words, the greater the vanity of it all; and what does man get from it?

¹² Who knows what is good for man in his lifetime, in those few days he lives so vainly, days that like a shadow he spends? Who can tell a man what will happen under the sun after his time?