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.
20I thought about all the hard work that I had done. It seemed useless, and I became depressed/discouraged.
21Some people work wisely and skillfully, using the things that they have learned. But when they die, they leave everything, and someone who has not worked hard acquires those things. And that also seemed to be senseless and caused me to be discouraged.
22So, it seems that people do not RHQ get much for all the hard work that they do and for worrying.
23Every day the work that they do causes them to experience pain and to be worried. And during the night, their minds are not able to rest. That also is very frustrating.
24So I decided that the best thing that we can do is to enjoy what we eat and drink, and also enjoy our work. And I realized that those things are what God intends for us.
25There is absolutely no one RHQ who is able to enjoy those things if God does not give those things to him.