2 Pleasures, sumptuous buildings, riches and possessions are but vanity. 14 The wise and the fool have both one end touching the bodily death.
1 I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with joy: therefore take thou pleasure in pleasant things: and behold, this also is vanity.
2 I said of laughter, Thou art mad: and of joy, What is this that thou doest?
3 I sought in mine heart to give myself to wine, and to lead mine heart in wisdom, and to take hold of folly, till I might see where is that goodness of the children of men, which they enjoy under the Sun, the whole number of the days of their life.
4 I have made my great works: I have built me houses: I have planted me vineyards.
5 I have made me gardens and orchards, and planted in them trees of all fruit.
6 I have made me cisterns of water, to water therewith the woods that grow with trees.
7 I have gotten servants and maids, and had children born in the house: also I had great Possession of beeves and sheep above all that were before me in Jerusalem.
8 I have gathered unto me also silver and gold, and the chief treasures of Kings and provinces: I have provided me men singers, and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as a woman taken captive, and women taken captives.
9 And I was great, and increased above all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I withheld it not from them: I withdrew not mine heart from any joy: for mine heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my portion of all my travail.
11 Then I looked on all my works that mine hands had wrought, and on the travail that I had labored to do: and behold, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit: and there is no profit under the Sun.
12 ¶ And I turned to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: (for who is the man that will come after the King in things, which men now have done?)
13 Then I saw that there is profit in wisdom more than in folly: as the light is more excellent than darkness.
14 (A)For the wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness: yet I know also that the same condition falleth to them all.
15 Then I thought in mine heart, It befalleth unto me, as it befalleth to the fool. Why therefore do I then labor to be more wise? And I said in mine heart, that this also is vanity.
16 For there shall be no remembrance of the wise, nor of the fool forever: for that that now is, in the days to come, shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man, as doth the fool?
17 Therefore I hated life: for the work that is wrought under the Sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity, and vexation of the spirit.
18 I hated also all my labor, wherein I had travailed under the Sun, which I shall leave to the man that shall be after me.
19 And who knoweth whether he shall be wise or foolish? yet shall he have rule over all my labor, wherein I have travailed, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the Sun. This is also vanity.
20 Therefore I went about to make mine heart abhor all the labor, wherein I had travailed under the Sun.
21 For there is a man whose travail is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity: yet to a man that hath not travailed herein, shall he give his portion: this also is vanity, and a great grief.
22 For what hath man of all his travail and grief of his heart, wherein he hath travailed under the Sun?
23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief: his heart also taketh not rest in the night: which also is vanity.
24 There is no profit to man, but that he eat and drink, and delight his soul with the profit of his labor: I saw also this, that it was of the hand of God.
25 For who could eat, and who could haste to outward things more than I?
26 Surely to a man that is good in his sight, God giveth wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth pain to gather, and to heap to give to him that is good before God: this also is vanity, and vexation of the spirit.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 2:1
- Ecclesiastes 2:3
- Ecclesiastes 2:3
- Ecclesiastes 2:3
- Ecclesiastes 2:5
- Ecclesiastes 2:7
- Ecclesiastes 2:8
- Ecclesiastes 2:8
- Ecclesiastes 2:9
- Ecclesiastes 2:10
- Ecclesiastes 2:12
- Ecclesiastes 2:12
- Ecclesiastes 2:14
- Ecclesiastes 2:14
- Ecclesiastes 2:16
- Ecclesiastes 2:16
- Ecclesiastes 2:20
- Ecclesiastes 2:21
- Ecclesiastes 2:24
- Ecclesiastes 2:25
Cross references
- Ecclesiastes 2:14 : Prov. 17:24
