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.
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.