11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done

and what I had toiled to achieve,

everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;i

nothing was gained under the sun.j

Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,

and also madness and folly.k

What more can the king’s successor do

than what has already been done?l

13 I saw that wisdomm is better than folly,n

just as light is better than darkness.

14 The wise have eyes in their heads,

while the fool walks in the darkness;

but I came to realize

that the same fate overtakes them both.o

15 Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.

What then do I gain by being wise?”p

I said to myself,

“This too is meaningless.”

16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;q

the days have already come when both have been forgotten.r

Like the fool, the wise too must die!s

Toil Is Meaningless

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.t