The futility of wealth

10 Everyone who tries to get as much money as they can

will never think that they have enough.

They will never be satisfied with the money that they have.

That also is senseless.

11 The more money that we have,

the more people want us to spend our money to buy things for them.

So people who have a lot of money do not [RHQ] benefit from it;

they see [MTY] it when they get it, but it soon ◄disappears/is completely spent►.

12 Those who work hard sleep peacefully at night,

even if they do not have much food to eat.

But rich people do not sleep well,

because they worry about their money.

13 I have seen another terrible thing that happens here on the earth [MTY]:

People save up all their money and become rich,

but they are not helped by saving a lot of money,

14 because something happens that causes their money to be gone,

and when they die,

there is no money for their children to get/inherit.

15 When we are born,

we do not bring anything with us,

and when we die,

we take nothing with us

from all that we have earned by our working hard.

16 That also seems senseless.

People bring nothing into the world when they are born,

and they leave this world taking nothing with them.

They have worked hard,

but they receive no lasting benefit [MET].

17 Furthermore, rich people are always miserable [MET] and sad,

and depressed/discouraged and often sick and ◄resentful/thinking that what has happened to them is unfair►.

18 So, the best thing for people to do here on the earth during the few years that God allows them to be alive is to eat and drink and to enjoy their work, because those are the things that God has given to them. 19 If people are rich and have a lot of possessions, and are able to ◄enjoy/be happy with► the things that they have and to enjoy their work, those things are also gifts from God. 20 Those people do not worry much about everything that has happened during the time that they have been alive, because God enables them to be happy doing everything that they do.

6 I have seen something else here on this earth that troubles people. 2 God enables some people to get a lot of money and possessions and to be honored; they have everything [LIT] that they want. But God sometimes does not allow them to continue to enjoy those things. Someone else gets them and enjoys them. That seems senseless and unfair.

3 Someone might have 100 children and live for many years. But if he is not able to enjoy the things that he has acquired, and if he is not buried properly after he dies, I say that a child that is dead when it is born is more fortunate. 4 That dead baby’s birth is meaningless; it does not even have a name. It goes directly to the place where there is only darkness. 5 It does not live to see the sun or know anything. But it finds more rest than rich people do who are alive. 6 Even if people could live for 2,000 years, if they do not enjoy the things that God gives to them, it would have been better for them never to have been born.

All people who live a long time certainly [RHQ] all go to the same place— to the grave.

7 People work hard to earn enough money to buy food to eat [MTY],

but often they never get enough to eat.

8 So it seems that [RHQ] wise people do not receive more lasting benefits

than foolish people do.

And it seems that [RHQ] poor people do not benefit from knowing how to conduct their lives.

9 It is better to enjoy the things that we already have [MTY]

than to constantly want more things;

continually wanting more things is senseless,

like chasing the wind.

10 All the things that exist on the earth have been given names.

And everyone knows what people are like,

so it is useless to argue with someone (OR, with God)

who is stronger than we are.

11 The more that we talk,

the more often we say things that are senseless,

so it certainly does not [RHQ] benefit us to talk a lot.

12 We live for only a short time; we disappear like [SIM] a shadow disappears in the sunlight. No one [RHQ] knows what is best for us while we are alive, and no one [RHQ] knows what will happen to us after we die [EUP].