Ecclesiastes 2

¹I said in my heart , Come now , I will test you with pleasure ; enjoy yourself. But behold , this also was vanity .

²I said of laughter , It is mad , and of pleasure , What use is it ?

³I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine —my heart still guiding me with wisdom —and how to lay hold on folly , till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life .

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

⁵I made myself gardens and parks , and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees .

⁶I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees .

⁷I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house . I had also great possessions of herds and flocks , more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem .

⁸I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces . I got singers, both men and women , and concubines , the delight of the sons of man .

⁹So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem . Also my wisdom remained with me.

¹⁰And 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 .

¹¹Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it , and behold , all was vanity and a striving after wind , and there was nothing to be gained under the sun .

¹²So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly . For what can the man do who comes after the king ? Only what has already been done .

¹³Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly , as there is more gain in light than in darkness .

¹⁴The wise person has his eyes in his head , but the fool walks in darkness . And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.

¹⁵Then I said in my heart , What happens to the fool will happen to me also . Why then have I been so very wise ? And I said in my heart that this also is vanity .

¹⁶For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance , seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten . How the wise dies just like the fool !

¹⁷So I hated life , because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind .

¹⁸I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun , seeing that I leave it to the man who will come after me,

¹⁹and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool ? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun . This also is vanity .

²⁰So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun ,

²¹because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil .

²²What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun ?

²³For all his days are full of sorrow , and his work is a vexation . Even in the night his heart does not rest . This also is vanity .

²⁴There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil . This also , I saw , is from the hand of God ,

²⁵for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment ?

²⁶For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy , but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting , only to give to one who pleases God . This also is vanity and a striving after wind .