⁸ If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them. ⁹ After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.

¹⁰ He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity. ¹¹ When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on? ¹² The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.

¹³ There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. ¹⁴ When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him. ¹⁵ As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. ¹⁶ This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? ¹⁷ Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.

¹⁸ Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.¹⁹ Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. ²⁰ For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

6 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men— ² a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and a severe affliction. ³ If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he, ⁴ for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. ⁵ It never sees the sun and it never knows anything; it is better off than he. ⁶ Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things—do not all go to one place?”

⁷ All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied.⁸ For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? ⁹ What the eyes see is better than what the soul desires. This too is futility and a striving after wind.