So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool? And what advantage does a pauper gain by knowing how to survive?

What benefit can a worker gain from his toil?

What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth?

I said of partying, “It is folly,” and of self-indulgent pleasure, “It accomplishes nothing!”

Whatever has happened is beyond human understanding; it is far deeper than anyone can fathom.

What does a man acquire from all his labor and from the anxiety that accompanies his toil on earth?

Whatever exists now has already been, and whatever will be has already been; for God will seek to do again what has occurred in the past.

The more one argues with words, the less he accomplishes. How does that benefit him?

Surely the king’s authority is absolute; no one can say to him, “What are you doing?”

Surely no one knows the future, and no one can tell another person what will happen.

For no one knows what is best for a person during his life – during the few days of his fleeting life – for they pass away like a shadow. Nor can anyone tell him what the future will hold for him on earth.

What exists now is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing truly new on earth.

Next, I decided to consider wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. For what more can the king’s successor do than what the king has already done?

Whatever has happened was foreordained, and what happens to a person was also foreknown. It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate because God is more powerful than he is.

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these days?” for it is not wise to ask that.

yet a fool keeps on babbling. No one knows what will happen; who can tell him what will happen in the future?

Divide your merchandise among seven or even eight investments, for you do not know what calamity may happen on earth.

Just as you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones form in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.