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.
18. I also hated all the fruit of my toil for which I had labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the one who comes after me.
19. Who knows if he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master over all the fruit of my toil for which I had wisely labored under the sun. This too is futile.
20. So I turned my heart over to despair over all the things for which I had toiled under the sun.
21. For sometimes a man, who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, must hand over as an inheritance to someone who did not work for it. This also is futile and a great misfortune.
22. For what does a man get for all his toil and longing of his heart for which he labors under the sun?