Ecclesiastes 2:1-16 ▼

1 I said in my heart, “Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things.” See, this too was vanity.

2 Of laughter I said: “Mad!” and of mirth: “What good does this do?”

3 Guided by wisdom, I probed with my mind how to beguile my senses with wine and take up folly, until I should understand what is good for human beings to do under the heavens during the limited days of their lives.

4 I undertook great works; I built myself houses and planted vineyards;

5 I made gardens and parks, and in them set out fruit trees of all sorts.

6 And I constructed for myself reservoirs to water a flourishing woodland.

7 I acquired male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem.

8 I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the treasures of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and delights of men, many women.

9 I accumulated much more than all others before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom, too, stayed with me.

10 Nothing that my eyes desired did I deny them, nor did I deprive myself of any joy; rather, my heart rejoiced in the fruit of all my toil. This was my share for all my toil.

11 But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the fruit of the toil for which I had toiled so much, see! all was vanity and a chase after wind. There is no profit under the sun.

12 What about one who succeeds a king? He can do only what has already been done. I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly.

13 And I saw that wisdom has as much profit over folly as light has over darkness.

14 Wise people have eyes in their heads, but fools walk in darkness. Yet I knew that the same lot befalls both.

15 So I said in my heart, if the fool’s lot is to befall me also, why should I be wise? Where is the profit? And in my heart I decided that this too is vanity.

16 The wise person will have no more abiding remembrance than the fool; for in days to come both will have been forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies like the fool!