| 2:1 | I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure"; but surely, this also [was] vanity. |
| 2:2 | I said of laughter"Madness!"; and of mirth, "What does it accomplish?" |
| 2:3 | I searched in my heart [how] to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what [was] good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. |
| 2:4 | I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. |
| 2:5 | I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all [kinds] of fruit trees in them. |
| 2:6 | I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. |
| 2:7 | I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. |
| 2:8 | I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, [and] musical instruments of all kinds. |
| 2:9 | So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. |
| 2:10 | Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. |
| 2:11 | Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all [was] vanity and grasping for the wind. [There was] no profit under the sun. |
| 2:12 | Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly; For what [can] the man [do] who succeeds the king? [Only] what he has already done. |
| 2:13 | Then I saw that wisdom excels folly As light excels darkness. |
| 2:14 | The wise man's eyes [are] in his head, But the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived That the same event happens to them all. |
| 2:15 | So I said in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, It also happens to me, And why was I then more wise?" Then I said in my heart, "This also [is] vanity." |
| 2:16 | For [there is] no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, Since all that now [is] will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise [man] die? As the fool! |
| 2:17 | Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun [was] distressing to me, for all [is] vanity and grasping for the wind. |
| 2:18 | Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. |
| 2:19 | And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also [is] vanity. |
| 2:20 | Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. |
| 2:21 | For there is a man whose labor [is] with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also [is] vanity and a great evil. |
| 2:22 | For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? |
| 2:23 | For all his days [are] sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. |
| 2:24 | Nothing [is] better for a man [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. |
| 2:25 | For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? |
| 2:26 | For [God] gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who [is] good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to [him who is] good before God. This also [is] vanity and grasping for the wind. |
Ecclesiastes 2 - New King James Version
