Ecclesiastes 2

1I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with joy and see pleasure"; and behold, this also was vanity.

2I said to laughter, "Madness," and to joy, "What does this accomplish?"

3I explored in my heart to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart guiding me with wisdom, and to grasp folly, until I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven for the number of days of their lives.

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

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

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

7I acquired male servants and maidservants, and had houseborn servants as well; I also possessed abundant livestock—oxen and flocks—more than anyone before me in Jerusalem.

8I also amassed silver and gold for myself, along with the special treasure of kings and the provinces. I acquired male and female singers for myself, and the delights of humankind—musical instruments, and those of every kind.

9I grew great and increased more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood with me.

10I did not hold back from my eyes anything they desired, nor deny my heart any joy—for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.

11I surveyed all the deeds my hands had accomplished and the toil I endured to achieve them—and behold, everything was vanity and vexation of wind, with no profit under the sun.

12I turned to see wisdom, madness, and folly, for what can the man who comes after the king do other than what has already been done?

13I saw that wisdom has an advantage over folly, just as light has over darkness.

14The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and I myself also knew that one event befalls them all.

15I said in my heart, "What befalls the fool will befall me too, so why was I then any wiser?" I said in my heart that this too is vanity.

16For there is no memory for the wise as for the fool forever; already in the days to come everything is forgotten. How does the wise man die? As the fool.

17So I detested life because the work done under the sun was oppressive to me; everything is futility and a striving after wind.

18I hated all my labor under the sun, the labor in which I toiled, because I must leave it to the man who will be after me.

19Who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and acted wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.

20So I turned my heart to despair over all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.

21For there is a man whose labor involves wisdom, knowledge, and skill, yet to another man who has not labored over it he leaves it as his share. This also is vanity and a great evil.

22For what does a man have from all his toil and the anxiety of his heart, as he labors under the sun?

23For all his days are sorrows, and vexation marks his toil; even at night his heart does not rest. This too is vanity.

24Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and let his soul see good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.

25For who can eat, or who can hasten, apart from me?

26To the man who is good in his sight God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner he gives toil to gather and amass, to give to the one who is good before God. This too is vanity and vexation of spirit.