Ecclesiastes 2:8–17

8 gI also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and 5musical instruments of all kinds.

9 hSo I became great and 6excelled imore than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,

For my heart rejoiced in all my labor;

And jthis was my 7reward from all my labor.

11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done

And on the labor in which I had toiled;

And indeed all was kvanity and grasping for the wind.

There was no profit under the sun.

The End of the Wise and the Fool

12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom land madness and folly;

For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—

Only what he has already mdone.

13 Then I saw that wisdom nexcels folly

As light excels darkness.

14 oThe wise man’s eyes are in his head,

But the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I myself perceived

That pthe same event happens to them all.

15 So I said in my heart,

“As it happens to the fool,

It also happens to me,

And why was I then more wise?”

Then I said in my heart,

“This also is vanity.”

16 For there is qno more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,

Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.

And how does a wise man die?

As the fool!

17 Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.