1. And I have turned, and I see all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and lo, the tear of the oppressed, and they have no comforter; and at the hand of their oppressors [is] power, and they have no comforter.
2. And I am praising the dead who have already died above the living who are yet alive.
3. And better than both of them [is] he who hath not yet been, in that he hath not seen the evil work that hath been done under the sun.
4. And I have seen all the labour, and all the benefit of the work, because for it a man is the envy of his neighbour. Even this [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.