Testing Pleasure
The Teacher tries everything money can build, houses, vineyards, gardens, singers, treasure, and finds both pleasure and achievement empty, since the wise die like fools and an heir may squander it all. What is left is eating, drinking, and work, given from God's hand.
2 1In my heart I said, "Come, I'll test you with pleasure; enjoy what's good." But this too was fleeting. 2I said of laughter, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"
3I explored in my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and to grasp foolishness, until I might see what is good for people to do under heaven the few days of their lives. 4I undertook great works. I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6I made myself pools of water to irrigate a forest of growing trees. 7I bought male and female slaves, and had home-born slaves too. I owned larger herds and flocks than anyone before me in Jerusalem. 8I gathered for myself silver and gold, the treasure of kings and provinces. I got male and female singers, and men's delights—many concubines. 9So I became great, greater than all before me in Jerusalem; and my wisdom stayed with me. 10Whatever my eyes wanted I did not withhold. I refused my heart no joy, for my heart delighted in all my work, and this was my reward for all my work. 11Then I surveyed all my hands had done and the toil I spent doing it, and it was all fleeting, chasing wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Wisdom Against Folly
12So I turned to consider wisdom, madness, and foolishness. For what can the king's successor do? Only what has already been done. 13I saw that wisdom has more gain than foolishness, as light has more than darkness. 14The wise person has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same fate befalls them all. a a v14 "Has eyes in his head" is a Hebrew expression: the wise person sees clearly. 15Then I thought, "The fool's fate is mine too. So why have I been so very wise?" And I decided this too is fleeting. 16The wise, like the fool, will not be remembered for long; in days to come both are forgotten. How the wise die just like fools! 17So I hated life, because the work done under the sun grieved me; it is all fleeting, a chasing after wind.
Toil Left to a Stranger
18I hated all my labor under the sun, since I must leave it to the one after me. 19Who knows if he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will control all I worked for with my wisdom under the sun. This too is fleeting.
20So I gave my heart up to despair over all the toil I labored at under the sun. 21One may work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, yet must leave it all to be enjoyed by someone who never worked for it. This too is fleeting, a great evil. 22What does a person gain from all the toil and striving of heart he labors at under the sun? 23All his days bring sorrow, his work grief; even at night his mind gets no rest. This too is fleeting. 24Nothing is better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. This too, I saw, is from God's hand, 25for apart from him, who can eat or who can find enjoyment? 26God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to the person who pleases him, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and collecting, only to hand it to one who pleases God. This too is fleeting, chasing wind.
