23For all his days are pain, and worry is his business. At night, as well, his heart does not rest. This, too, is mere breath.

until I might see what is good for the sons of man that they should do under the heavens in the number of the days of their lives.

Now Qohelet swings back to the other pole of his ambivalence—one might say, from moral hopefulness to unblinking observation.

At one moment he will be called upon to laugh, at another, to weep, but he can scarcely hope to derive any gain from this alternating pattern not determined by him

Why should God rage over your voice and ruin your handiwork?

21To all the words, too, that they speak, do not pay heed, that you hear not your servant reviling you. 22For many times, too, your heart has known, that you, too, have reviled others.

The vision of futility begins his book, and the vision of decay and death ends it.

12For the offender does evil a hundredfold and lives a long life, though I know, too, that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear His presence.

6In the morning plant your seed and at evening let your hand not rest, for you know not which will be fit, this one or that, or whether both be equally good.