VI. 1/6.  There is an evil I have observed beneath the sun, and it is prevalent among mankind; a man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honour, and he lacks nothing that his heart could desire, yet God did not give him the power to enjoy it.  This is futility and an evil disease.  If a man begets an hundred children and lives many years - great being the days of his life - and his soul is not content with the good - and he even is deprived of burial; I say: the stillborn is better off than he.  Though its coming is futile and it departs in darkness, though its very name is enveloped in darkness, though it never saw the sun nor knew; it has more satisfaction than he.  Even if he should live a thousand years twice over, but find no contentment - do not all go to the same place?  He describes the riches of misers and asserts that this evil is often in men, since none of those things, which are thought to be good in the world, is lacking in him, and nonetheless he torments himself with the most inane sparing, saving those things to be devoured by others.  Nor does he say this in exaggeration, for even if he produced an hundred books and lived longer than Adam, that is almost one thousand years, but lived two thousand years, he would rot his mind with desire and avarice.  He is born prematurely in a worse state that dies, as soon as he seems born.  For he did not see evil things or good things; but although he used to possess good things, he was tormented by thoughts and sadness, and having been born prematurely he has more rest, than a greedy man who is old.  But both however are seized by the same fate, while both the first and the last are taken away by the same death.  This could also refer to Israel, because God gave Israel the law, which speaks about the prophets, the testament, the Promised Land and the Saviour: "let the reign of God be removed from you and given to a nation that brings forth his fruit"[1].  All these things have been given to a foreign and pilgrim people from peoples who see their good yet do not enjoy it.  They say we are of much better condition, who are considered to be as new-born and premature by those, who praised themselves in antiquity, finding glory in their fathers, saying: "our father was Abraham"[2], but however both we and they hasten to one place, that is to the judgement of God.  But what Ecclesiastes says in the middle is this: "but there was no tomb for him".  This either means that that rich man does not think of his death, and while he possesses all, is greedy even in building a tomb; or that often he is killed on account of those riches, by plots against his life, and is left unburied, or, what I think is a better interpretation, he needs nothing of good deeds, from which he is able to obtain for himself memory among those who come after him.  And so that he will not pass through life in silence, just as cattle, although he had a means, by which he was able to show that he had lived.

7/8.  All man's toil is for his mouth, yet his wants are never satisfied.  What advantage then has the wise man over the fool?  What less has the pauper who knows how to conduct himself among the living?  All that men toil at in this world is consumed by the mouth and taken to be digested in the stomach after it has been ground down by the teeth.  And when a little bit has pleased the palette, it seems to create a desire, so long as it is held in the mouth.  But when it has passed down to the stomach the difference between foods is no longer distinguishable.  And after all these things the spirit of a man who eats is not filled up; or then he desires again what he has eaten, and is as wise as the fool without food, who does not know how to live, and the poor man asks for nothing else but for how he is to sustain the organs of his meagre body, and not die through starvation.  Or because the spirit takes no gain from the food of the body, and food is of equal use to a wise man and a fool, and the pauper wanders therefrom, to where he has seen wealth to be.  This is better understood regarding a man of the church, who learned in the heavenly Scriptures, holds all his toil in his mouth yet his spirit is not filled, for he always desires to learn.  And in that respect the wise man has more than the fool, since when he feels himself to be poor, he presses that pauper, who is called blessed in the Gospel, to understand those things which are of life, and walks the restricted and narrow path, which leads to life, and he is poor from wicked deeds and knows where Christ, (who is life) is to be found. 

9.  Better is what the eyes see than what is imagined.  That, too, is futility and a vexation of the spirit.  Symmachus interpreted this clearly, he says: "it is better to make provision, than to walk about as it pleases you".  That is, it is better to do all things according to what you know to be right in your mind, which is the eye of the soul, than to follow the desire of your heart.  For this is to wander in spirit, just as Ezekiel says: "he who walks by the desire of his heart"[3].  For indeed he denounced that man is proud and only pleases himself and says he is better, who makes provision for all days, than he, whom nothing pleases, unless he has made it himself.  Nothing is worse than him, and more vane than any breath.  And again here "vexation of the spirit" has been interpreted by Theodotion and Aquila as 'suffering of the soul'.  Symmachus too has "affliction of the spirit".  More precisely we must remember that in Hebrew 'spirit' and 'breath' are similar in usage - that is ruha.  

10.   What has been was already named, and it is known that he is but a man.  He cannot contend with one who is mightier than him.  Clearly this is predicting the arrival of the Saviour, since he writes 'he will be'; before he was seen in body his name was already written in the Scriptures and was known by prophets and holy men of God, since he was a man; and similar to this, since he is a man, he is not able to walk with his Father.  And in the Gospel it says: "the Father, who sent me, is greater than me."[4]  In the following passages it teaches not to ask more than is written for us by Him, so that a man may not wish to know more than is attested in the Scriptures.  For although we are ignorant of our condition and our life passes us by like a shadow, and our future is undecided, it is not useful for us to strive for more than we are able to attain.  Some think that this passage means that God already knows the names of all the men, who will be in the future, and who will be enclosed within the body of mankind.  Nor is a man able to reply to his creator, and ask why he has been made in this way or that.  For however much more we seek, our vanity and our unnecessary words are exposed all the more.  Our choice does not come free from the foreknowledge of God, but precedes the causes, why any one thing is done in a particular way.

11.              There are many things that increase futility;