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.”
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?