I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth;{HR}Therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also [was] vanity.
I said of laughter, [It is] mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
I searched in mine heart how to cheer my flesh with wine,{HR}Mine heart yet guiding me with wisdom,{HR}And how to lay hold on folly,{HR}Till I might see what [it was] good for the sons of men{HR}That they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
I made me great works; I builded me houses;{HR}I planted me vineyards;
I made me gardens and parks,{HR}And I planted trees in them of all [kinds of] fruit:
I made me pools of water,{HR}To water therefrom the forest where trees were reared;
I bought men-servants and maidens,{HR}And had servants born in my house;{HR}Also I had great possessions of herds and flocks,{HR}Above all that were before me in Jerusalem.
I gathered me also silver and gold,{HR}And the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces:{HR}I gat me men singers and women singers,{HR}And the delights of the sons of men, concubines very many.
So I was great, and increased{HR}More than all that were before me in Jerusalem:{HR}Also my wisdom remained with me.
And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them:{HR}I withheld not my heart from any joy,{HR}For my heart rejoiced because of my labour.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought,{HR}And on the labour that I had laboured to do:{HR}And, behold, all [was] vanity and a striving after wind,{HR}And there was no profit under the sun.
And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly:{HR}For what [can do] the man that cometh after the king?{HR}That which hath been already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly,{HR}As far as light excelleth darkness.
The wise man’s eyes [are] in his head,{HR}And the fool walketh in darkness:{HR}And yet I perceived that one event happeneth to them all.
Then said I in my heart,{HR}As it happeneth to the fool,{HR}So will it happen even to me;{HR}And why was I then more wise?{HR}Then I said in my heart,{HR}That this also [was] vanity.
For of the wise man, even as of the fool,{HR}[There is] no remembrance forever;{HR}Seeing that in the days to come{HR}All will have been already forgotten.{HR}And how doth the wise man die even as the fool!
So I hated life;{HR}Because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me:{HR}For all [is] vanity and a striving after wind.
And I hated all my labour wherein I laboured under the sun:{HR}Seeing that I must leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
And who knoweth whether he shall be wise or a fool?{HR}Yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured,{HR}And wherein I have showed wisdom under the sun. This also [is] vanity.
Therefore I turned about to cause my heart to despair{HR}Concerning all the labour wherein I had laboured under the sun.
For there is a man whose labour [is] with wisdom,{HR}And with knowledge, and with skilfulness;{HR}Yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion.{HR}This also [is] vanity and a great evil.
For what hath a man of all his labour,{HR}And of the striving of the heart,{HR}Wherein he laboureth under the sun?
For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail is grief;{HR}Yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.
[There] is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink,{HR}And make his soul enjoy good in his labour.{HR}This also I saw, that it [is] from the hand of God.
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?
For to the man that pleaseth him God giveth wisdom,{HR}And knowledge, and joy:{HR}But to the sinner he giveth travail,{HR}To gather and to heap up,{HR}That he may give to him that pleaseth God.{HR}This also [is] vanity and a striving after wind.