Ecclesiastes 2

¹ I said to myself, “Come, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good.” But this too was a breath.

² I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What good does it do?”

³ I explored in my heart how to cheer my body with wine, while my heart guided me with wisdom, and how to hold on to folly, until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the counted days of their lives.

⁴ I enlarged my undertakings: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards for myself.

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

⁶ I made pools of water for myself, to irrigate with them a grove of growing trees.

⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and had servants born in my household. I also had herds of cattle and flocks of sheep—more than anyone who had been before me in Jerusalem.

⁸ I gathered silver and gold for myself, and treasures from kings and provinces. I acquired singers, men and women, for myself, and the pleasures of people: one woman and many women.

⁹ I grew and became greater than anyone who had been before me in Jerusalem. What is more, my wisdom stayed with me.

¹⁰ I denied my eyes nothing they asked for; I withheld no pleasure from my heart, because my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward for all my labor.

¹¹ Then I looked at all the works my hands had done and the labor I had spent doing them. It was all a breath and a chasing after the wind; there was no gain under the sun.

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

¹³ Then I saw that wisdom has more benefit than folly, just as light has more benefit than darkness.

¹⁴ The wise person has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. I also understood that the same fate comes to them all.

¹⁵ Then I said to myself, “The fool’s fate will overtake me too. So why was I wiser?” And I thought to myself that this too is a breath.

¹⁶ There is no lasting remembrance of the wise or the fool; in the days to come, everything will already have been forgotten. How the wise person dies just like the fool!

¹⁷ So I hated life, because the work done under the sun seemed grievous to me. It is all a breath and a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸ I also hated all my labor, for which I had worked hard under the sun, because I must leave it to whoever comes after me.

¹⁹ And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? He will rule over all the labor I worked hard at and pursued with wisdom under the sun. This too is a breath.

²⁰ So I turned to let my heart despair of all the labor I had worked hard at under the sun.

²¹ For someone may labor with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, yet leave it as a share to someone who did not work for it. This too is a breath and a great evil.

²² For what does a person gain from all his labor and the striving of his heart as he works hard under the sun?

²³ All his days are pain, and his work is distress; even at night his heart does not rest. This too is a breath.

²⁴ There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and show himself what is good in his labor. I saw that this too comes from the hand of God.

²⁵ For who can eat and enjoy anything apart from me?

²⁶ For God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to the person who pleases him; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up, so that he may hand it over to one who pleases God. This too is a breath and a chasing after the wind.

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