He tries pleasure
2
📚✭I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; so enjoy pleasant things; and, look, this also was emptiness.2 📚I said of laughter, “It is madness!”, and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”
He tries wine
3 📚I sought in my heart to give myself to wine, while my heart was still guiding me with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly, until I could see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their life.
He undertakes great projects
4 📚✭I undertook great works. I built houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself.
5 📚I made gardens and orchards for myself, and in them I planted trees bearing all kinds of fruit.
6 📚I made pools of water for myself, with which to water a forest of growing trees.
He amasses possessions and riches
7 📚I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves born in my house. I also had great possessions of large and small cattle, more than all who were in Jerusalem before me.
He tries music, etc
8 📚I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I obtained male and female singers for myself and things delightful to the sons of men, musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
9 📚✭So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.
He tries anything he desires
10 📚✭And I did not refuse my eyes whatever they desired. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased in all my labour, and this was my reward for all my labour.
His conclusion about all that
11 📚✭Then I looked at all the works that my hands had done, and at the labour that I had undertaken to do, and, see, all was emptiness and chasing the wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
He turns again to wisdom and folly
12 📚✭And I turned to look at wisdom, and madness, and folly; for what can the man do who succeeds the king? Only what has already been done.
13 📚Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as much as light excels darkness.
14 📚The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And I saw also that one event happens to them all.
His conclusion about this
15 📚Then I said in my heart, “It will happen to me just as it happens to the fool, and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart that this also is emptiness.
16 📚For there is no more permanent remembrance of the wise than of the fool, since what now is will be forgotten in days to come. And how does the wise man die? Like the fool.
Despair
17 📚✭Therefore I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun brings sadness to me; for all is emptiness and chasing the wind.
18 📚✭Yes, I hated all the results of my labour which I had done under the sun, because I would leave it to the man who succeeds me.
19 📚And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have the control of all the results of my labour for which I have worked, and in which I have displayed my wisdom under the sun. This is also emptiness. 20 📚Therefore I utterly despaired in my heart of all the labour which I had done under the sun.
21 📚When there is a man who has laboured with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill, still he will leave his portion to a man who has not worked for it. This also is emptiness and a great wrong.
22 📚For what does a man have for all his labour, and for his hearty striving, with which he has laboured under the sun?
23 📚For all his days are painful and grievous; yes, his heart cannot rest at night. This is also emptiness.
The best thing this wise man could conclude
24 📚✭There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should find pleasure in his work. I also saw that this is from the hand of God.
25 📚For who can eat, or who else can hasten to it, more than I?
26 📚For to a man who is pleasing in his sight God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and collecting, so that he may give it to the one who is pleasing in God’s presence. This also is emptiness and chasing the wind.