1. I said within myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to see what is good.” Yet behold, this too was meaningless.
2. I said of laughter, “It is madness!” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”
3. I thought deeply about how to cheer my flesh with wine—letting my heart guide me with wisdom—and how to grasp folly, so that I could see what was worthwhile for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.
4. I increased my possessions. I built myself houses and I planted myself vineyards.
5. I made royal gardens and parks for myself, and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6. I constructed for myself pools of water to irrigate a forest of flourishing trees.
7. I purchased male and female servants and had other servants who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than all my predecessors in Jerusalem.
8. I also amassed silver and gold for myself, as well as the treasure of kings and the provinces. I acquired male and female singers for myself, as well as the luxuries of humankind—vaults and vaults of them.
9. So I became far wealthier than all before me in Jerusalem, yet my wisdom stayed with me.
10. I denied myself nothing that my eyes desired; I withheld from my heart no enjoyment. My heart took delight from all my toil— this was my reward for all my labor.
11. Yet when I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended to accomplish it, behold, it all was futile and chasing after the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.
12. Then I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly. For what more can the one who succeeds the king do than what he has already done?
13. I realized that: Wisdom is more beneficial than folly as light is better than darkness.
14. A wise man has his eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness. Yet, I also came to realize that the same destiny befalls them both.
15. Then said I in my heart: “I, even I, will have the same destiny as a fool. So why have I become so wise?” I said in my heart, “This too is meaningless.”