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[1]I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with joy: therefore take thou pleasure in pleasant things: and behold, this also is vanity.
[2]I said of laughter, Thou art mad: and of joy, What is this that thou doest?
[3]I sought in mine heart to give myself to wine, and to lead mine heart in wisdom, and to take hold of folly, till I might see where is that goodness of the children of men, which they enjoy under the sun: the whole number of the days of their life.
[4]I have made my great works: I have built me houses: I have planted me vineyards.
[5]I have made me gardens and orchards, and planted in them trees of all fruit.
[6]I have made me cisterns of water, to water therewith the woods that grow with trees.
[7]I have gotten servants and maids, and had children born in the house: also I had great possession of beeves and sheep above all that were before me in Jerusalem.
[8]I have gathered unto me also sliver and gold, and the chief treasures of kings and provinces: I have provided me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as a woman taken captive, and women taken captives.
[9]And I was great, and increased above all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
[10]And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I withheld it not from them: I withdrew not mine heart from any joy: for mine heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my portion of all my travail.
[11]Then I looked on all my works that mine hands had wrought, and on the travail that I had labored to do: and behold, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit: and there is no profit under the sun.
[12]And I turned to behold wisdom, and madness and folly: (for who is the man that will come after the king in things, which men now have done?)
[13]Then I saw that there is profit in wisdom, more than in folly: as the light is more excellent than darkness.
[14]For the wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness: yet I know also that the same condition falleth to them all.
[15]Then I thought in mine heart, It befalleth unto me, as it befalleth to the fool. Why therefore do I then labor to be more wise? And I said in mine heart, that this also is vanity.
[16]For there shall be no remembrance of the wise, nor of the fool forever: for that that now is, in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man, as doth the fool?
[17]Therefore I hated life: for the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity, and vexation of the spirit.
[18]I hated also all my labor, wherein I had travailed under the sun, which I shall leave to the man that shall be after me.
[19]And who knoweth whether he shall be wise or foolish? Yet shall he have rule over all my labor, wherein I have travailed, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
[20]Therefore I went about to make mine heart abhor all the labor, wherein I had travailed under the sun.
[21]For there is a man whose travail is in wisdom, and in knowledge and in equity: yet to a man that hath not travailed herein, shall he give his portion: this also is vanity and a great grief.
[22]For what hath man of all his travail and grief of his heart, wherein he hath travailed under the sun?
[23]For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief: his heart also taketh not rest in the night: which also is vanity.
[24]There is no profit to man: but that he eat, and drink, and delight his soul with the profit of his labor: I saw also this, that it was of the hand of God.
[25]For who could eat, and who could haste to outward things more than I?
[26]Surely to a man that is good in his sight, God giveth wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth pain, to gather, and to heap to give to him that is good before God: this is also vanity, and vexation of the spirit.
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