2 So I praised and thought more fortunate those who have been long dead than the living, who are still alive.
3 But better than them both [I thought] is he who has not yet been born, who has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
4 Then I saw that all painful effort in labor and all skill in work comes from man's rivalry with his neighbor. This is also vanity, a vain striving after the wind and a feeding on it.
5 The fool folds his hands together and eats his own flesh [destroying himself by indolence].
6 Better is a handful with quietness than both hands full with painful effort, a vain striving after the wind and a feeding on it.
7 Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun [in one of its peculiar forms].
8 Here is one alone–no one with him; he neither has child nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labor, neither is his eye satisfied with riches, neither does he ask, For whom do I labor and deprive myself of good? This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility); yes, it is a painful effort and an unhappy business. [Prov. 27:20; I John 2:16.]