2 “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher. “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!” 3 What benefit do people get from all the effortwhich they expend on earth? 4 A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains the same through the ages. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries away to a place from which it rises again. 6 The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north;round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns.

16 Give, and take, and indulge yourself, because in Hades one cannot look for luxury. 17 All living beings become old like a garment, for the decree from of old is, "You must die!" 18 Like abundant leaves on a spreading tree that sheds some and puts forth others, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies and another is born. 19 Every work decays and ceases to exist, and the one who made it will pass away with it. 20 Happy is the person who meditates on wisdom and reasons intelligently,