The Loneliness of Success — Ecclesiastes

The Preacher looks again at the oppression done under the sun. He sees the tears of those who are oppressed, and they have no comforter. Power is on the side of those who oppress them, and still they have no comforter. He praises the dead above the living, and says that better than both is the one who has never been born, and has not seen the evil done under the sun.

He then looks at work done well, and sees that it makes a person envied by their neighbour. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. But better is one handful with quietness than both hands full of toil and vexation of spirit. Next he sees a man alone, with no child and no brother. There is no end to his labour, and his eye is never satisfied with riches. He never asks, For whom do I labour, and why do I deny myself good?

From that picture comes the plainest advice in the book. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. If one falls, the other lifts him up, but woe to the one who falls alone. Two lying together keep warm, and one alone cannot. If someone overpowers one, two can stand against him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

The chapter ends with a king. A poor and wise child is better than an old and foolish king who will no longer be warned. Someone comes out of prison to reign, while a man born into the kingdom becomes poor. The Preacher looks at all the living who walk under the sun, and at the second child who stands up in the king's place. There is no end to all the people who went before, and those who come after will not rejoice in him either. This too, he says, is vanity and vexation of spirit.