| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2"Laughter," I said, "is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?" |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly--my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well--the delights of a man's heart. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done? |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15Then I said to myself, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said to myself, "This too is meaningless." |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die! |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
|
    |