قَدْ قَالَهَا ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ فَمَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ
Qad q a lah a alla th eena min qablihim fam a aghn a AAanhum m a k a noo yaksiboon a The same did say [to themselves many of] those who lived before their time; but of no avail to them was all that they had ever achieved:
 - Mohammad Asad
The same was said by those who passed before them, but they gained nothing from what they did
 - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik
The same had already been said by those 'destroyed' before them,1 but their 'worldly' gains were of no benefit to them.
 - Mustafa Khattab
Those before them said it, yet (all) that they had earned availed them not;
 - Marmaduke Pickthall
Thus did the (generations) before them say! But all that they did was of no profit to them.
 - Abdullah Yusuf Ali