32 questions across 11 chapters
“What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?”
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun?”
“See, this is new?”
“And of mirth, What doeth it?”
“For what can the man do that cometh after the king?”
“And why was I then more wise?”
“Who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?”
“What hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?”
“Who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?”
“What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?”
“Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”
“And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive?”
“Whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good?”
“But how can one be warm alone?”
“Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?”
“And what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?”
“And what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?”
“Do not all go to one place?”
“What hath the wise more than the fool?”
“Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?”
“Who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow?”
“Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these?”
“For who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?”
“Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?”
“Why shouldest thou die before thy time?”
“That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?”
“Who is as the wise man?”
“What doest thou?”
“For who can tell him when it shall be?”
“Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion?”
“And what shall be after him, who can tell him?”
“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things?”