The Futility of Pleasure

1I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with gladness, and look on the good!”

And behold, this also is vapor.

2Of laughter, I said, “It is madness,” and of joy, “What is this accomplishing?”

3I searched in my heart to draw out my flesh with wine, and my heart was guiding me in wisdom, and to lay hold on folly, until that I might see where is this good for the sons of man, that they might do under the heavens the number of the days of their lives.

4I made great my works; I built for myself houses, and I planted for myself vineyards; 5I made for myself gardens and parks, and I planted in them a tree of every fruit. 6I made for myself pools of water, to cause to drink from them a grove of sprouting trees.

7I acquired menservants and maidservants, and sons of the house were unto me; also there were unto me great possessions of cattle and sheep, more than all who were before my face in Jerusalem; 8I gathered for myself also silver and gold, and the property of kings and of the provinces; I appointed for myself male singers and female singers, and the delights of the sons of man—a wife and wives.

9So I became great, and I added more than all who were before my face in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom stood with me. 10And all that my eyes asked, I did not lay aside from them; I did not withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my toil—and this was my portion from all my toil.

11And I turned to all the works that my hands had done, and to the toil that I had toiled to do, and behold—all was vapor and a striving after the wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

The Wise and the Foolish

12And I turned to look at wisdom and madness and folly. For what is the man who comes after the king—that which already they have done! 13And I saw that there is profit to wisdom above folly, like the profit of the light over the darkness.

14The wise one, his eyes are in his head,

and the fool is walking in the darkness.

And I also knew of that event—the one that happens to all of them. 15And I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, it will also happen to me. Then what is profit to me in being wise?”

And I said in my heart, “This also is vapor.”

16For there is no memory of the wise with the fool, forever, in that already in the days that are coming all will be forgotten. And how a wise one will die like the fool! 17And I have hated this life, because the work was evil to me that was done under the sun—for all is vapor and a striving after the wind.

The Futility of Work

18And I hated all my toil that I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? And he will rule over all my toil that I have toiled, and that I have done wisely, under the sun. This also is vapor.

20And I turned around my heart to despair over all the toil that I have toiled under the sun. 21For there is a man whose toil is with wisdom and with knowledge and with skill, and to a man not having toiled for it he must give his portion. This also is vapor and a great evil. 22For what has been for the man for all his toil and for the striving of his heart, with which he toils under the sun? 23For all his days are pains, and anger is his task; even in the night his heart will not find rest. This also is vapor.

24Nothing is better for the man than to eat and drink, and his soul to see good in his toil. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God; 25for who can eat, and who can enjoy, apart from Him?† 26For to the man who is good in His eyes, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; and to the sinner He gives the task to gather and to heap up, to give to the good before the face of God. This also is vapor, and a striving after the wind.