eth; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. fade as a leaf.

1

We all do

Man fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not; his days are like a shadow that declineth; and there is none abiding.

2 Our days are swifter than a post. They are passed away as the swift ships. We spend our years as a tale that is told.

3

Here we have no continuing city, but are strangers and sojourners before the Lord, as were all our fathers. For what is our life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

* We dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth. There is but a step between us and death.

5 Man also knoweth not his time; but as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

6

One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet; his breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow. Another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure; his days are spent without hope, and the number of his months is cut off in the midst. And another saith to his soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry; and yet that very night his soul shall be required of him.

1 Job xiv. 2. Psal. cii. 11. 1 Chron. xxix. 15. 25, 26. Psal. xc. 9. 3 Heb. xiii. 14. 1 Cor. Job iv. 19. 1 Sam. xx. 3. • Job xxi. 23, 24, 25. Job vii. 6. Job xxi. 21.

iv. 14.

2 Job ix.

xxix. 15. James 5 Eccles. ix. 12. Luke xii. 19, 20.

1 All flesh shall perish together. In a moment shall they die; and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.

2

Lord, make us to know our end, and the measure of our days, what it is; that we may know how frail

we are.

3

THE PAIN AND TROUBLE HE IS SUBJECT TO.

Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upwards.

4

Though the days of man are few, yet they are full of trouble. Few and evil are the days of the years of our pilgrimage.

5

All the days of man are sorrows, and his travail grief. His flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

6

* Many evils and troubles continually befal him. He is liable to all manner of sickness, and all manner of diseases; and through fear of death, he is all his life-time subject to bondage.

All things are full of labour, man cannot utter it. And sore is the travail which God hath given to the sons of men, to be exercised therewith.

8

The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; and we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our body: For we are not yet come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord our God giveth us.

9

THE VANITY OF HUMAN CONDITION.

Who knoweth what is good for man in this life,

all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow?

1

1 Surely every man walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain.

"Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

3

The thoughts of men are vanity.

* Our conversation received by tradition from our fathers, in vain.

And what profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh, and of the vexation of his heart wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

* He laboureth in vain, he spendeth his strength for nought.

'Though we have made us great works, and built us houses, and planted vineyards, and made gardens and orchards, and planted trees in them of all kind of fruit and though we have gotten great possessions of great and small cattle; and have gathered also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of provinces; and have gotten men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. And though whatsoever our eyes desired we have not kept from them, and have not withheld our hearts from any joy; yet when we look on all the works that our hands have wrought, and on the labour that we have laboured to do, behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is no profit under the

sun.

8

And if we prove our hearts with mirth, and say

to them, enjoy pleasure; we shall say of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doeth it?

1

If we apply our hearts to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth, we shall perceive that this also is vexation of spirit: For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

2 Neither can a man find out the work that is done

under the sun. Because, though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

3 Moreover of making many books there is no end: and much study is weariness to the flesh.

4 And how dieth the wise man? As the fool. For there is no remembrance of the wise man more than of the fool for ever.

5

* If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, and his labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; who knoweth whether the man that shall be after him, unto whom he shall leave all his labour which he hath taken, shall be a wise man or a fool? Yet shall he have rule over all the labour wherein he hath laboured, and wherein he hath shewed himself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

6

* Wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness; yet is folly oftentimes set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.

'Wisdom is better than strength; nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

1

Again, I considered all travail, and every right work; that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

2 Labour not to be rich; for riches certainly make themselves wings, and fly away. Why then shouldst thou set thine eyes upon that which is not ? For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof faileth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth; so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

3

Riches are not for ever; neither doth the crown endure to every generation.

4 When goods increase they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?

5 Sometimes riches are kept for the owners thereof to their hurt: for those riches perish by evil travail; and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath in his sickness.

• There is an evil common among men; namely, a man to whom God giveth 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.

7 There is one who hath neither child nor brother; yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do

3 Prov.

2 Prov. xxiii. 4, 5. James i. 11. 4 Eccles. v. 11. 5 Eccles. v. 13, 14. 17.

7 Eccles. iv. 8,