Ecclesiastes 2:13-26 ▼

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.

22 For what has been to a man by all his labor, and by the thought of his heart that he labored at under the sun?

23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail sadness; even at night his heart has not lain down; this [is] also vanity.

24 There is nothing good in a man who eats, and has drunk, and has shown his soul good in his labor. This also I have seen that it [is] from the hand of God.

25 For who eats and who hurries out more than I?

26 For to a man who [is] good before Him, He has given wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; and to a sinner He has given travail, to gather and to heap up, to give to the good before God. Even this [is] vanity and distress of spirit.