 1 I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore consider and behold goodness. This also is vanity. 2 I said of laughter, It is madness and of mirth, What does it do? 3 I sought in my heart to give myself to wine, yet guiding my heart with wisdom. Also to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for the sons of men. What should they do under the heavens all the days of their life. 4 I made my works great. I built houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made gardens and orchards for myself. I planted trees of all fruit in them. 6 I made pools of water for myself to water the forest shooting forth trees. 7 I bought slaves and slave women and sons of the house were mine. Also before me were livestock, a herd and a great flock were mine, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered silver and gold to myself and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got men singers and women singers for myself and the delights of the sons of men, a wife and very many wives. 9 I was great and increased more 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 joy. My heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was my part of all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor that I had labored to do. And, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit. There is no profit under the sun. 12 I turned to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king when they have already done it? 13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness. 14 The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. I also knew that one event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, As it happens to the fool, so it happens even to me. Why then was I more wise? I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For there is no memory of the wise more than of the fool forever, since what is now will all be forgotten in the days to come. How do the wise die above the fool. 17 Therefore I hated life. Because the work that is done under the sun is sad to me. For all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 18 Yes, I hated all my labor that I had done under the sun, that I must leave it to those who will be after me. 19 Who knows whether anyone will be wise or a fool? Yet someone else will rule over all my labor in which I have labored and acted wisely under the sun. This is also vanity. 20 I turned to cause my heart to despair over all the labor that I did under the sun. 21 When there is a man whose labor is in wisdom and in knowledge and with success, yet to a man who has not labored in it, he shall leave it for his share. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 For what has man received from all his labor and from troubling his heart in which he has labored under the sun? 23 For all his days are sorrows and his labor sadness. Yes, his heart does not take rest in the night. This is also vanity. 24 Is it not good that one should eat and drink and make one's soul see good in one's labor? This I also saw, that it was from the hand of God. 25 Who can eat or who can enjoy apart from me? 26 God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to one who is good in His sight. But to the sinner He gives labor, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to another who is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
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