Ecclesiastes 2:5-19

⁵I built for myself gardens and parks; I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

⁶I created pools of water to water a forest where trees were grown.

⁷I purchased male slaves and female slaves; I had slaves born in my palace. I also had large herds and flocks of livestock, much more than any king who ruled before me in Jerusalem.

⁸I also accumulated for myself silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces. I got male and female singers for myself—the delights of the children of humanity—and many concubines.

⁹So I became greater and wealthier than all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my wisdom remained with me.

¹⁰Whatever my eyes desired, I did not withhold from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, because my heart rejoiced in all my labor and pleasure was my reward for all my work.

¹¹Then I looked on all the deeds that my hands had accomplished, and on the work that I had done, but again, everything was vapor and an attempt to shepherd the wind. There was no profit under the sun in it.

¹²Then I turned to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. For what can the next king do who comes after the king, which has not already been done?

¹³Then I began to understand that wisdom has advantages over folly, just as light is better than darkness.

¹⁴The wise man uses his eyes in his head to see where he is going, but the fool walks in darkness, although I know the same event happens to all of them.

¹⁵Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool, will also happen to me. So what difference does it make if I am very wise?” I concluded in my heart, “This too is only vapor.”

¹⁶For the wise man, like the fool, is not remembered for very long. In the days to come everything will have been long forgotten. The wise man dies just like the fool dies.

¹⁷So I detested life because all the work done under the sun was evil to me. This was because everything is vapor and an attempt to shepherd the wind.

¹⁸I hated all my accomplishments for which I had worked under the sun because I must leave them behind to the man who comes after me.

¹⁹For who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master over everything under the sun that my work and wisdom have built. This also is vapor.