| King James Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: | 1There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. |
| 2A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease. | 2God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy. |
| 3If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. | 3A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead. |
| 4For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. | 4His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name, |
| 5Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other. | 5and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man. |
| 6Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place? | 6He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else—well, what’s the use? |
| 7All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. | 7All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough. |
| 8For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? | 8So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others? |
| 9Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit. | 9Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind. The Future—Determined and Unknown |
| 10That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he. | 10Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny. |
| 11Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? | 11The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they? |
| 12For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun? | 12In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone? |
| King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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