Ecclesiastes 2:10-23
Modern English Version
10 And everything that my eyes wanted I did not refuse them.
And I did not withhold my heart from any selfish pleasure,
for my heart was glad from all my efforts;
and this was my reward for all my efforts.
11 Then I turned to all the work that my hands had designed
and all the labor that I had toiled to make;
and notice, all of it was vanity and chasing the wind.
And there was no benefit under the sun.
The Fate of the Wise and the Fool
12 So I turned to consider wisdom,
the folly of ideas, and foolish behavior;
for what else can a man do who comes after the king?
Or what more than those have already done?
13 Then I saw that there is more benefit in wisdom than in foolishness,
more benefit in light than in darkness.
14 A wise man has eyes in his head so he sees where he walks,
but the fool continues in darkness.
Yet I perceived
that the same fate overtakes them all.
15 Then I said in my heart,
“What happens to the fool will happen to me also.
So to what advantage is my wisdom?”
Then I said to myself,
“This also is vanity.”
16 For there is no lasting memory for the wise or the fool,
by which in the coming days everyone will be forgotten.
How the wise dies just like the fool!
17 And I began to hate life for the labor that was done under the sun was contemptible to me, for all of this was vanity and chasing the wind. 18 And I despised all the toil in which I labored under the sun, which I will give up to the man who comes after me. 19 And who knows if this man will be wise or a fool? Yet he will gain power over every labor that I have toiled and my use of wisdom under the sun. Also this is vanity. 20 So I turned to give my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun. 21 For there is a man who labors with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet to a man who did not labor for this, he leaves it as his inheritance. This also is vanity and a great distress. 22 For what becomes of a man with all his labor and with the striving in his heart that he toils under the sun? 23 For all his days are sorrowful, and his work is a vexation; even at night his heart finds no rest. Also this is fleeting.
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