1. So I considered all of this carefully, examining all of it: The righteous and the wise and their deeds are in God’s hand, along with both love and hate. People don’t know anything that’s ahead of them.
2. Everything is the same for everyone. The same fate awaits the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the pure and the impure, those who sacrifice and those who don’t sacrifice. The good person is like the wrongdoer; the same holds for those who make solemn pledges and those who are afraid to swear.
3. This is the sad thing about all that happens under the sun: the same fate awaits everyone. Moreover, the human heart is full of evil; people’s minds are full of madness while they are alive, and afterward they die.
4. Whoever is among the living can be certain about this. A living dog is definitely better off than a dead lion,
5. because the living know that they will die. But the dead know nothing at all. There is no more reward for them; even the memory of them is lost.
6. Their love and their hate, as well as their zeal, are already long gone. They will never again have a stake in all that happens under the sun.
7. Go, eat your food joyfully and drink your wine happily because God has already accepted what you do.
8. Let your garments always be white; don’t run short of oil for your head.
9. Enjoy life with your dearly loved spouse all the days of your pointless life that God gives you under the sun—all the days of your pointless life!—because that’s your part to play in this life and in your hard work under the sun.