And I declared that the dead,(A)
    who had already died,
are happier than the living,
    who are still alive.(B)
But better than both
    is the one who has never been born,(C)
who has not seen the evil
    that is done under the sun.(D)

And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.(E)

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Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

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.

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