Ecclesiastes 2:3-19

³So, after thinking a lot about it, I decided to ◄cheer myself/cause myself to be happy► by drinking a lot of wine. So while I was still trying to be wise, I decided to do things that many people do to be happy during the short time that they are alive on the earth.

⁴I did great things: I caused houses to be built for myself and vineyards to be planted.

⁵I told my workers to make gardens and parks. Then I told them to fill the gardens with many kinds of fruit trees.

⁶I told them to build reservoirs to store water to irrigate the fruit trees.

⁷I bought male and female slaves, and babies who later became my slaves were born in my palace. I also owned more livestock than any of the previous kings in Jerusalem had owned.

⁸I also accumulated large amounts of silver and gold that were paid to me from the treasures of kings and rulers of provinces. I hired men and women to sing for me, and I had many ◄concubines/slave wives► who gave me much pleasure EUP.

⁹So, I became greater than anyone else who had ever lived in Jerusalem, and I was very wise.

¹⁰I got everything LIT that I SYN saw and wanted. I did everything LIT that I thought would enable me to be happy. All those things that I SYN enjoyed were like a reward for all my hard work.

¹¹But then I thought about all the hard work that I SYN had done to get all those things, and none of it seems to bring any lasting benefit DOU. It was all like chasing the wind.

¹²Then I started to think about being wise, and also about being foolish DOU. I said to myself, “I certainly do not think that RHQ the next king will be able to do anything better than I can.”

¹³And I thought, “Surely it is better to be wise than to be foolish, like light is better than darkness,

¹⁴because wise people walk in the daylight and IDM can see where they are going, but foolish people walk in the darkness and cannot see where they are going.” But I also realized that both wise people and foolish people eventually die.

¹⁵So I said to myself, “I am very wise, but I will die at the end of my life, like foolish people do. So ◄how has it benefited me to be very wise?/it certainly has not benefited me to be very wise RHQ►. I do not understand why people consider that it is valuable to be wise.

¹⁶Wise people and foolish people all die. And after we die, we will all eventually be forgotten DOU.”

¹⁷So I hated being alive, because everything that we do here on the earth MTY distresses me. It all seems to be useless like chasing the wind.

¹⁸I also began to hate all the hard work that I had done, because when I die, everything that I have acquired will belong to the next king.

¹⁹And ◄who/no one► knows RHQ whether he will be wise or whether he will be foolish. But even if he is foolish, he will acquire all the things that I worked very hard and wisely to get.