⁷ because no one knows what will happen, and no one can say when something might happen. ⁸ No one has control over the life-breath,^[a] to retain it, and there’s no control over the day of death. There’s no release from war, and wickedness won’t deliver those who practice it.

⁹ I observed all of this as I paid attention to all that happens under the sun. Sometimes people exercise power over each other to their detriment.