Ecclesiastes 2:1-23
I said to myself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy
yourself." But again, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, "It is
mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" I searched with my mind how to
cheer my body with wine — my mind still guiding me with wisdom — and how
to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do
under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works; I
built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and
parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools
from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female
slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great
possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in
Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of
kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and
delights of the flesh, and many concubines.
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also
my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from
them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all
my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all
that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again,
all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be
gained under the sun.
So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the one
do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw
that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
The wise have eyes in their head,
but fools walk in darkness.
Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them. Then I said to
myself, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I
been so very wise?" And I said to myself that this also is vanity. For
there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in
the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die
just like fools? So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was
grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I
must leave it to those who come after me — and who knows whether they will
be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and
used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave
my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun,
because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill
must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This
also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil
and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are
full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do
not rest. This also is vanity.
