4:8a There is a man all alone,

I saw a man who has no family, (English Easy-to-Read Version)
-or-
Some people are alone.

4:8b without even a son or brother.

not a son or even a brother. (English Easy-to-Read Version)
-or-
They have no children and no relatives.

4:8c And though there is no end to his labor,

But he continues to work very hard. (English Easy-to-Read Version)
-or-
And yet they work hard all the time,

4:8d his eyes are still not content with his wealth:

Whatever he has, it is never enough for him.
-or-
but they are never satisfied by ⌊gathering more and more⌋ wealth.

4:8e “For whom do I toil

And he works so hard that he never stops and asks himself, “Why am I working so hard? (English Easy-to-Read Version)
-or-
They don’t plan for their work to benefit anyone.
-or-
They don’t take the time to think about why they are working so hard.

4:8f and bereave my soul of enjoyment?”

Why do I not take ⌊time to enjoy⌋ good ⌊things in life⌋ ?”
-or-
They should plan that their hard work would make themselves happy.
-or-
They do not enjoy what they have.

4:8g This too is futile—a miserable task.

This is also a pointless and miserable task.
-or-

⌊But they don’t so,⌋ this too is pointless.
-or-
Their work has no purpose. It only brings trouble to their lives. (EEB)

4:8a-g (combined)

For example, some people don’t have friends or family. But they are never satisfied with what they own, and they never stop working to get more. They should ask themselves, “Why am I always working to have more? Who will get what I leave behind?” What a senseless and miserable life! (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Some people live alone. They cannot give things to friends or to children because they have no friends or children. They are not happy with the things that they have. But they continue to work so that they can get more. They should ask themselves, “Whom are we working for?” They should ask themselves why they do not enjoy their life more. This is like sad work.

© 2006 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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