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.
14. Wise people have eyes in their heads,but fools walk in darkness.Yet I knew that the same lot befalls both.
15. So I said in my heart, if the fool’s lot is to befall me also, why should I be wise? Where is the profit? And in my heart I decided that this too is vanity.
16. The wise person will have no more abiding remembrance than the fool; for in days to come both will have been forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies like the fool!
17. Therefore I detested life, since for me the work that is done under the sun is bad; for all is vanity and a chase after wind.