New Living Translation NLT
Hebrew Names Version HNV
1 There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity.
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There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:
2 God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy.
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a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
3 A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead.
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If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:
4 His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name,
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for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
5 and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man.
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Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.
6 He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else—well, what’s the use?
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Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don't all go to one place?
7 All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough.
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All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
8 So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others?
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For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?
9 Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
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Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
10 Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.
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Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.
11 The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they?
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For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?
12 In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone?
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For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.