“I have heard many things like these before. What miserable comforters ¹  are you all!

When I tried to make sense of this, it was troubling to me. ¹ 

What benefit can a worker ¹  gain from his toil? ² 

because it ¹  did not shut the doors ²  of my mother’s womb on me, ³  nor did it hide trouble ⁴  from my eyes!

Even as I have seen, ¹  those who plow ²  iniquity ³  and those who sow trouble reap the same. ⁴ 

For you ¹  will forget your trouble; ²  you will remember it like water that ³  has flowed away.

They conceive ¹  trouble and bring forth evil; their belly ²  prepares deception.”

In the fullness of his sufficiency, ¹  distress ²  overtakes him. the full force of misery will come upon him. ³ 

See the one who is pregnant with wickedness, who conceives destructive plans, and gives birth to harmful lies – ¹ 

Cruel rulers ¹  are not your allies, those who make oppressive laws. ² 

As for the heads of those who surround me – may the harm done by ¹  their lips overwhelm them!

A laborer’s ¹  appetite ²  works on his behalf, ³  for his hunger ⁴  urges him to work. ⁵ 

All of man’s labor is for nothing more than ¹  to fill his stomach ²  – yet his appetite ³  is never satisfied!

Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead, ¹  those who are always instituting unfair regulations, ² 

For evil does not come up from the dust, ¹  nor does trouble spring up from the ground,

thus ¹  I have been made to inherit ²  months of futility, ³  and nights of sorrow ⁴  have been appointed ⁵  to me.

His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; ¹  his tongue injures and destroys. ² 

What does a man acquire from all his labor and from the anxiety that accompanies his toil on earth? ¹ 

Better is one handful with some rest than two hands full of toil ¹  and chasing the wind.

The toil of a stupid fool ¹  wears him out, ²  because he does not even know the way to the city. ³