The Preacher describes someone to whom God gives wealth and honour but no ability to enjoy it, and says a stillborn child is better off. People work to satisfy their appetite, yet it is never satisfied.
1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun , and it is common among men :
2 A man to whom God hath given riches , wealth , and honour , so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth , yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity , and it is an evil disease .
3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years , so that the days of his years be many , and his soul be not filled with good , and also that he have no burial ; I say , that an untimely birth is better than he.
4 For he cometh in with vanity , and departeth in darkness , and his name shall be covered with darkness .
5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun , nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good : do not all go to one place ?
7 All the labour of man is for his mouth , and yet the appetite is not filled .
8 For what hath the wise more than the fool ? what hath the poor , that knoweth to walk before the living ?
9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire : this is also vanity and vexation of spirit .
10 That which hath been is named already , and it is known that it is man : neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
11 Seeing there be many things that increase vanity , what is man the better ?
12 For who knoweth what is good for man in this life , all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow ? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun ?