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.”
16. For the wise man, together with the fool, is not remembered forever. For in the days to come both will be forgotten. Alas, the wise, just like the fool, must die!
17. And so I hated life, because the work done under the sun was grievous to me. All is but vapor and chasing after the wind.