4. Anyone who is among the living has hope – even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
5. For the living know that they will die,but the dead know nothing;they have no further reward,and even their name is forgotten.
6. Their love, their hateand their jealousy have long since vanished;never again will they have a partin anything that happens under the sun.
7. Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.
8. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.
9. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun – all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labour under the sun.
10. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
11. I have seen something else under the sun:The race is not to the swiftor the battle to the strong,nor does food come to the wiseor wealth to the brilliantor favour to the learned;but time and chance happen to them all.
12. Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:As fish are caught in a cruel net,or birds are taken in a snare,so people are trapped by evil timesthat fall unexpectedly upon them.