3. I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly – my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
4. I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
5. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
7. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
8. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well – the delights of a man’s heart.
9. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
10. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;I refused my heart no pleasure.My heart took delight in all my labour,and this was the reward for all my toil.
11. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had doneand what I had toiled to achieve,everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;nothing was gained under the sun.
12. Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,and also madness and folly.What more can the king’s successor dothan what has already been done?
13. I saw that wisdom is better than folly,just as light is better than darkness.
14. The wise have eyes in their heads,while the fool walks in the darkness;but I came to realisethat the same fate overtakes them both.
15. Then I said to myself,‘The fate of the fool will overtake me also.What then do I gain by being wise?’I said to myself,‘This too is meaningless.’
16. For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;the days have already come when both have been forgotten.Like the fool, the wise too must die!
17. So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.