9All this I saw, as I scrutinized everything that is done under the sun: there is a time when one man oppresses another to his own hurt. 10And I have seen the wicked, that would come and go from the holy place, buried with honor – and praised in the city where they committed their crimes. This is also vanity. 11When crime is not punished promptly, other men are tempted to engage in evil. 12Though a sinner commits a hundred crimes, and lives a long time; still, I know that those who fear God will be better off. 13But because wicked do not honor God, it will not go well with him, nor shall his days last, which are as a shadow. 14There is yet another vain thing which is done upon the earth, that there are just men who get what the wicked deserve, and, again, where wicked men get what the righteous deserve. I said that this also is vanity. 15So then I commended enjoying life, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry; that way they shall experience some satisfaction from their labors all the days of their life, which God gives them under the sun.

16When I applied my mind to know wisdom, and to observe what is done upon the earth (often denying myself sleep day and night), 17Then I beheld all that God has done under the sun that a man cannot fathom, because, though even a wise man endeavors to discover it, yet he shall not really comprehend it.