What is the point of living in a world where wisdom brings no more good than foolishness, where righteousness is not rewarded and sin is not punished? At last Ecclesiastes says directly that in such a world the dead are happier than the living, and those who were never born and never lived in it are better off still (vv. 1-3). This conclusion, quite Buddhist in essence, does not appear by accident: the founder of Buddhism also looked at life so pessimistically for the same reasons as Ecclesiastes.
Indeed, if life is meaningless and unjust in principle, why is it needed? And how can it then be considered a good? Similar logic led people living at opposite ends of the earth, and unacquainted with one another, to the same conclusions. Not everyone may have the misfortune of falling under the power of a judge or tyrant-king who tramples all laws, but there is no person in the world who is not occupied with something, and every activity divides people (v. 4).
In the fallen world, labor has turned from a blessing into a curse. Even if it is crowned with success, one's neighbors will by no means rejoice in that success; their reaction to success will not be joy, but envy and hostility. With bitterness Ecclesiastes quotes the wise, who say that the lazy fool, unlike the wise person, will end by eating his own flesh out of hunger (v. 5). Even if that is so, he adds sadly, it is better to have less and be poor but live in peace than to be rich and have nothing but toil and anxiety (v. 6).
Ecclesiastes also notes another misfortune that threatens everyone: a person's loneliness in the face of a world hostile to him (vv. 7-8). And the point is not only that a lonely person has no one to whom he can leave the fruits of his labor. The point is also that loneliness is abnormal for a human being; a human being should not be alone (vv. 9-12). And if something good nevertheless happens in the world, it quickly passes and is forgotten. Ecclesiastes gives as an example the story of a certain wise young man who was born in a country ruled, judging from the author's words, by an unwise ruler (v. 13). The wise young man apparently managed not only to get out of prison to freedom, but also to take the throne after the death of the former king (v. 14). The wise young man, unlike his predecessor, apparently turned out to be a good ruler, so that the people welcomed his rule, which became an event in the history of the country he governed (v. 15). But even these golden times will pass into history, and everything will go on as before, so that descendants will not remember them and will not rejoice in what gladdened their ancestors (v. 16). Everything is transient before the face of eternity, and eternity turns toward the human being and toward all his deeds its darkest face, the face of inexorable and inevitable death, which makes everyone equal.
