¹⁶ When I gave my mind to the knowledge of wisdom and to seeing the business which is done on the earth (and there are those whose eyes see not sleep by day or by night),

² It is of no use for you to get up early, and to go late to your rest, with the bread of sorrow for your food; for the Lord gives to his loved ones in sleep.

¹³ And I gave my heart to searching out in wisdom all things which are done under heaven: it is a hard thing which God has put on the sons of men to do.

²³ All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose.

⁴⁰ This was my condition, wasted by heat in the day and by the bitter cold at night; and sleep went from my eyes.

⁸ It is one who is by himself, without a second, and without son or brother; but there is no end to all his work, and he has never enough of wealth. For whom, then, am I working and keeping myself from pleasure? This again is to no purpose, and a bitter work.

¹² There is a great evil which I have seen under the sun--wealth kept by the owner to be his downfall.

²⁵ I gave my mind to knowledge and to searching for wisdom and the reason of things, and to the discovery that sin is foolish, and that to be foolish is to be without one's senses.

⁷ No one is certain what is to be, and who is able to say to him when it will be?

⁹ All this have I seen, and have given my heart to all the work which is done under the sun: there is a time when man has power over man for his destruction.