Ecclesiastes 2:1-21 ▼

1 I said in my heart, “Pray, come, I try you with mirth, and look on gladness”; and behold, even it [is] vanity.

2 Of laughter I said, “Foolish!” And of mirth, “What [is] this it is doing?”

3 I have sought in my heart to draw out with wine my appetite (and my heart leading in wisdom), and to take hold on folly until I see where this [is]—the good to the sons of man of that which they do under the heavens, the number of the days of their lives.

4 I made great my works, I built for myself houses, I planted for myself vineyards.

5 I made for myself gardens and paradises, and I planted in them trees of every fruit.

6 I made for myself pools of water, to water from them a forest shooting forth trees.

7 I acquired menservants, and maidservants, and sons of the house were to me; also, I had much substance—herd and flock—above all who had been before me in Jerusalem.

8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I prepared for myself men-singers and women-singers, and the luxuries of the sons of man—a wife and wives.

9 And I became great, and increased above everyone who had been before me in Jerusalem; also, my wisdom stood with me.

10 And all that my eyes asked I did not keep back from them; I did not withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this has been my portion, from all my labor,

11 and I have looked on all my works that my hands have done, and on the labor that I have labored to do, and behold, the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit, and there is no advantage under the sun!

12 And I turned to see wisdom, and madness, and folly, but what [is] the man who comes after the king? That which [is] already—they have done it!

13 And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, like the advantage of the light above the darkness.

14 The wise—his eyes [are] in his head, and the fool is walking in darkness, and I also knew that one event happens with them all;

15 and I said in my heart, “As it happens with the fool, it happens also with me, and why am I then more wise?” And I spoke in my heart, that also this [is] vanity:

16 That there is no remembrance to the wise—with the fool—for all time, for that which [is] already, [in] the days that are coming is all forgotten, and how dies the wise? With the fool!

17 And I have hated life, for sad to me [is] the work that has been done under the sun, for the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit.

18 And I have hated all my labor that I labor at under the sun, because I leave it to a man who is after me.

19 And who knows whether he is wise or foolish? Yet he rules over all my labor that I have labored at, and that I have done wisely under the sun! This [is] also vanity.

20 And I turned around to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor that I labored at under the sun.

21 For there is a man whose labor [is] in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity, and to a man who has not labored therein he gives it—his portion! Even this [is] vanity and a great evil.