1 I considered also how much oppression
there is under the sun: the tears of the oppressed and no one to console
them, the violence of the oppressors and no one to hold them back.
2 More fortunate are the dead for being dead, than the living who have to
live,
3 and even more fortunate than both is the one not yet born who has not seen
the abuses under the sun.
4 I saw that all that is done, all that succeeds, results from rivalry with
the neighbor: all is meaningless and chasing the wind.
5 The fool folds his arms and eats his meat.
6 Yet better half a fistful of rest than fistfuls of toil and chasing the
wind.
7 I saw another senseless thing under the sun:
8 a man alone, without son or bro ther, working endlessly, his greed never
satisfied with wealth: ¡°For whom do I work and deprive myself of pleasure?¡±
This, too, is nonsense and mistaken investment.
9 Happier two than one alone, for their work brings a higher salary,
10 and when one falls the other lifts up his companion. Unfortunate he who
is alone and has no one to lift him up.
11 Moreover it¡¯s warmer with two in bed; how can one alone be warm?
12 One person may be overcome by an aggressor, but two can easily oppose
him; triple-stranded thread is not easily broken.
13 Better a youth who is poor and wise than a fool of an old king who shuns
advice.
14 He may even pass from prison to the throne, though born poor in his
kingdom.
15 I saw all who live under the sun follow the youth who replaced the latter
and there was no end to the people who sided with him.
16 And yet those who will come after will not be satisfied. This too makes
no sense; it¡¯s nothing but chasing wind.
Wise sayings
17 Watch your step when you go to God¡¯s house; it¡¯s a better offering to
listen, than to present sacrifices as do the fools; for they do not know the
evil they do.