I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure;
enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of
laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I
searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart
still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I
might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven
during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built
houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and
parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself
pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought
male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I
had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who
had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver
and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers,
both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of
man.
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in
Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes
desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure,
for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward
for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and
the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and
a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the
sun.
So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what
can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been
done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly,
as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person
has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I
perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said
in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why
then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this
also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring
remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been
long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated
life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for
all is vanity and a striving after wind.
I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I
must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows
whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for
which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is
vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all
the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who
has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave
everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This
also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil
and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all
his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in
the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and
drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the
hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have
enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and
knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of
gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This
also is vanity and a striving after wind.
