1. I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity.
2. I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?”
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.
4. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards.
5. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.
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.
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.
9. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.
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.
11. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had doneAnd 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.
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.
13. Then I saw that wisdom excels follyAs light excels darkness.
14. The wise man’s eyes are in his head,But the fool walks in darkness.Yet I myself perceivedThat the same event happens to them all.
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.”