1. I said in my heart, “Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things.” See, this too was vanity.
2. Of laughter I said: “Mad!” and of mirth: “What good does this do?”
3. Guided by wisdom, I probed with my mind how to beguile my senses with wine and take up folly, until I should understand what is good for human beings to do under the heavens during the limited days of their lives.
4. I undertook great works; I built myself houses and planted vineyards;
5. I made gardens and parks, and in them set out fruit trees of all sorts.
6. And I constructed for myself reservoirs to water a flourishing woodland.
7. I acquired male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem.
8. I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the treasures of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and delights of men, many women.
9. I accumulated much more than all others before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom, too, stayed with me.
10. Nothing that my eyes desired did I deny them, nor did I deprive myself of any joy; rather, my heart rejoiced in the fruit of all my toil. This was my share for all my toil.
11. But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the fruit of the toil for which I had toiled so much, see! all was vanity and a chase after wind. There is no profit under the sun.
12. What about one who succeeds a king? He can do only what has already been done. I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly.
13. And I saw that wisdom has as much profit over folly as light has over darkness.