Ecclesiastes - Chapter 2

Ecclesiastes · Chapter 2

1Verse 1. I said in my heart: I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things. And I saw that this also was vanity. 2Verse 2. Laughter I counted error: and to mirth I said: Why are you vainly deceived? 3Verse 3. I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly, till I might see what was profitable for the children of men: and what they ought to do under the sun, all the days of their life. 4Verse 4. I made me great works, I built me houses, and planted vineyards, 5Verse 5. I made gardens, and orchards, and set them with trees of all kinds, 6Verse 6. And I made me ponds of water, to water therewith the wood of the young trees, 7Verse 7. I got me menservants, and maidservants, and had a great family: and herds of oxen, and great flocks of sheep, above all that were before me in Jerusalem: 8Verse 8. I heaped together for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings, and provinces: I made me singing men, and singing women, and the delights of the sons of men, cups and vessels to serve to pour out wine: 9Verse 9. And I surpassed in riches all that were before me in Jerusalem: my wisdom also remained with me. 10Verse 10. And whatever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared: and esteemed this my portion, to make use of my own labor. 11Verse 11. And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labors in which I had labored in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun. 12Verse 12. I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I that he can follow the King his maker?) 13Verse 13. And I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as much as light differs from darkness. 14Verse 14. The eyes of a wise man are in his head: the fool walks in darkness: and I learned that they were to die both alike. 15Verse 15. And I said in my heart: If the death of the fool and mine shall be one, what does it avail me, that I have applied myself more to the study of wisdom? And speaking with my own mind, I perceived that this also was vanity. 16Verse 16. For there shall be no remembrance of the wise no more than of the fool forever, and the times to come shall cover all things together with oblivion: the learned dies in like manner as the unlearned. 17Verse 17. And therefore I was weary of my life, when I saw that all things under the sun are evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit. 18Verse 18. Again I hated all my application with which I had earnestly labored under the sun, being like to have an heir after me, 19Verse 19. Whom I do not know whether he will be a wise man or a fool, and he shall have rule over all my labors with which I have labored and been solicitous: and is there anything so vain? 20Verse 20. Therefore I left off and my heart renounced labouring anymore under the sun. 21Verse 21. For when a man labors in wisdom, and knowledge, and carefulness, he leaves what he has gotten to an idle man: so this also is vanity, and a great evil. 22Verse 22. For what profit shall a man have of all his labor, and vexation of spirit, with which he has been tormented under the sun? 23Verse 23. All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he does not rest in mind: and is not this vanity? 24Verse 24. Is it not better to eat and drink, and to show his soul good things of his labors? and this is from the hand of God. 25Verse 25. Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I? 26Verse 26. God has given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he has given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that has pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.