The Futility of Pleasure

1I said in my heart, Go now, I will prove thee with gladness, and look thou upon good: and behold, this also vanity. 2To laughter I said, It is mad: and to gladness, What did this? 3I examined in my heart to draw my flesh with wine, and my heart led in wisdom; and to lay hold upon folly till that I shall see what this good to the sons of man which they will do under the heavens the number of the days of their life. 4I magnified my work; I builded to me houses; I planted to me vineyards: 5I made to me gardens and pleasure grounds, and I planted in them a tree of all fruit. 6I made to me pools of waters to water from them the forest, causing trees to spring forth. 7I obtained servants and maids, and sons of the house were to me; also obtaining cattle, and many sheep were to me more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. 8I gathered to me also silver and gold, and the wealth of kings, and the provinces: I made to me men singing and women singing, and the delights of the sons of men, a wife and mistresses.

9And I was magnified and increased more than all being before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom stood to me. 10And all that mine eyes asked I kept not back from them, and I withheld not my heart from all gladness; for my heart rejoiced from all my labor: and this was my portion from all my labor. 11And I looked upon all my works my hands made, and upon the labor I labored to do, and behold, all vanity and striving of the spirit, and no profit under the sun.

The Wise and the Foolish

12And I turned to see wisdom, madness, and folly: for what the man that shall come after the king? with those things they did already. 13And I saw there is profit to wisdom more than to folly, as the excellence of the light above darkness. 14The wise, his eyes in his head; and the foolish one goes in darkness: and I knew, I also, that one event will meet with them all. 15And I said in my heart, As the event of the foolish one, also I, it will meet me; and wherefore then was I more wise? And I spake in my heart, This is also vanity. 16For no remembrance for the wise with the foolish one forever, since in the days coming, all being forgotten. And how will the wise die? with the foolish one. 17And I hated life, for evil to me the work done under the sun: for all vanity and striving of the spirit.

The Futility of Work

18And I hated all my labor I laboring under the sun: leaving it to the man who shall come after me. 19And who shall know whether he shall be wise or foolish? And he shall have dominion over all my labor which I labored, and was wise under the sun. Also this is vanity. 20And I turned about to let my heart despair for all the labor I labored under the sun. 21For there is man his labor in wisdom, and in knowledge and in success; and to man not laboring in it he shall give his portion. Also this is vanity and much evil. 22For what was to man in all his labor, and in the striving of his heart, he labored under the sun? 23For all his days pains, and vexation, his labor; also in the night his heart rested not Also this it is vanity.

24Not good in man he shall eat and drink and cause his soul to see good in his labor. Also this I saw that it is from the hand of God. 25For who shall eat, and who shall hasten forth above me? 26For to a man good before his face, he gave wisdom and knowledge and gladness: and to him sinning, he gave labor, to gather and to heap up, to give to the good one before the face of God. Also this is vanity and the striving of the spirit.