1And I said I to my heart: come, "prove yourself with joy and see good", and, behold , this also is futility 2I said to laughter: "What are these things?", and to joy", what have you done? ", and I turned that I would quiet my heart 3I thought in my heart to give pleasure to my flesh with wine, and my heart meditated in wisdom and held to understanding until I would see what good there is for the children men that they may do under the sun for the number of days of their lives 4I multiplied Servants for myself, I built houses for myself , I planted for myself vineyards 5I made for myself gardens and paradises, and I planted in them trees of every fruit 6I made for myself pools of waters to water the woods of fruit trees by them 7I got for myself male Servants and female Servants and I had a multitude of children of houses, and also I had more property of bulls and of sheep than all who were before me in Jerusalem 8I gathered to me also silver and gold and the property of Kings and of cities; I made for myself male Singers and female Singers and delight among the children of man. I made for myself male Cupbearers and female Cupbearers

9And I was great and I had gained more than all that had been before me in Jerusalem, and also my wisdom remained with me 10And all that my eyes asked I have not withheld from them, and I did not withhold my heart from any joy, because my heart rejoiced in all of my labors, and this has been my portion of all my labor 11And I gazed at all the work that my hands had made and at all the labor that I had labored to make, and behold, everything was futility and agitation of spirit, and there is no profit under the sun

12And I gazed to see wisdom and vice and folly, for who is the man that shall enter after the King into judgment, and then with him who made him? 13And I have seen that there is more profit in wisdom than foolishness, as light is greater than darkness 14A wise man’s eyes are in his head and a fool goes in darkness, and I have known that one event happens to them all 15I said in my heart: "surely, according to the misfortune of a fool, it will happen also to me, and why am I more wise? And I said in my heart: "this also is futility!" 16For the fool speaks from excess, because there is no remembrance of the wise with the fool for eternity, like days which already are coming and all are forgotten, and so the wise will die with the fool . 17And I hated life because the work that is done under the sun is evil to me, because everything is futility and agitation of spirit

18I hated all my labor that I have labored under the sun, because I leave it to a man who comes after me 19And who will know if he shall be wise or a fool, and he will be authorized over all my labors that I wrought and when I was made wise under the sun, and this also is futility 20And I turned to convince my heart about every labor that I labored under the sun 21Because there is a man whose labor is in wisdom and in knowledge and in success, and a man who does not labor in it gives him his portion, and this also is futility and great evil! 22And what does a son of man have in all his labor and in the desire of his heart which he wrought under the sun? 23For all his days are sorrow and his work is grief, also his heart at night does not lie down, and this also is futility

24There is no good for a man but to eat and to drink and to show good to his soul in his work; this also I have seen that it is from the hand of LORD JEHOVAH 25For who is going to eat and who will drink apart from him? 26For to the man who is good before him he gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, and to sinners he gives the task to increase and to gather and to give what is good before LORD JEHOVAH, and this also is futility and agitation of spirit