1 I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But this too proved to be vanity.
2 I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?"
3 I explored in my heart how to stimulate my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what is good for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life.
4 I undertook great works: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards for myself.
5 I made gardens and orchards for myself and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6 I made pools of water for myself, to irrigate a forest of growing trees.
7 I bought male and female slaves, and I had slaves born in my household. I also owned more herds and flocks than any who had been in Jerusalem before me.
8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, many concubines.
9 So I grew great and outstripped all who had been before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom also remained with me.
10 Nothing my eyes desired did I keep from them. I did not refuse my heart any pleasure, for my heart took delight in all my labor, and this was my reward for all my labor.
11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the labor I had spent in doing it, and see, everything was vanity and a chasing of the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
12 So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has been done already.
13 And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
14 The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the dark. And yet I perceived that the same fate overtakes them both.
15 Then I said to myself, "What happens to the fool will happen to me too. Why then have I been so exceedingly wise?" And I said to myself that this too is vanity.
16 For the wise man, like the fool, is not remembered for long, since in days to come both will have long been forgotten. How the wise man dies, just as the fool does!
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun weighed on me as evil; for everything is vanity and a chasing of the wind.
18 I hated all the labor I had labored at under the sun, since I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
19 And who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the labor I have labored at and spent my wisdom on under the sun. This too is vanity.
20 So I turned my heart over to despair concerning all the labor I had labored at under the sun.
21 For a man may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave everything as a portion to someone who has not labored for it. This too is vanity and a great evil.
22 For what does a man have from all his labor and the strain of his heart with which he labors under the sun?
23 All his days are pain, and his work is grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.
24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his labor. This too, I saw, comes from the hand of God.
25 For who can eat, or who can have pleasure, apart from me?
26 For to the man who pleases him God gives wisdom, knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping up, only to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is vanity and a chasing of the wind.