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1 I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with happiness. So enjoy pleasure." But look, this also is meaningless.
2 I said about laughter, "It is crazy," and about pleasure, "What use is it?"
3 I explored in my heart how to gratify myself with wine. I let my mind guide me with wisdom although I was still holding on to folly. I wanted to find out what is good for the children of mankind to do under heaven during the days of their lives.
4 I accomplished great things. I built for myself houses and planted for myself vineyards.
5 I built for myself gardens and parks, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6 I created pools of water to water a forest where trees were grown.
7 I purchased male slaves and female slaves; I had slaves born in my palace. I also had large herds and flocks of livestock, much more than any king who ruled before me in Jerusalem.
8 I also accumulated for myself silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces. I got singers, both male and female, and many concubines, the delight of the children of men. [[ Many modern translations interpret the last part of this verse in different ways: " and many concubines, and everything that pleases men " or " and everything that pleases people " . ]]
9 So I became greater and wealthier than all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my wisdom remained with me.
10 Whatever my eyes desired,2 I did not withhold from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,2 because my heart rejoiced in all my labor2 and pleasure was my reward for all my labor.
11 Then I looked on all the deeds that my hands had accomplished,2 and on the labor that I had done, but again, everything was meaningless—like chasing the wind.2 There was no profit under the sun in it.
12 Then I turned to consider wisdom,2 and also madness and folly. For what more can the man who becomes the next king do2 than what the king has already done?
13 Then I began to understand2 that wisdom has advantages over folly,2 just as light is more profitable than darkness.
14 The wise man uses his eyes in his head to see where he is going,2 but the fool walks in darkness, although I know the same event happens to all of them.
15 Then I said in my heart,2 "What happens to the fool,2 will also happen to me. So what difference does it make if I am very wise?"2 I concluded in my heart,2 "This too is meaningless."
16 For the wise man, like the fool, is not remembered for very long.2 In the days to come everything will have been long forgotten. The wise man dies just like the fool dies.
17 So I detested life because all the work done under the sun was evil to me. This was because everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
18 I hated all my toil for which I had toiled under the sun because I must leave it behind to the man who comes after me.
19 For who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master over everything under the sun that my labor and wisdom have built. This also is meaningless.
20 So I began to give my heart to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.
21 For there might be someone who labors with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, but he will leave everything he has to a man who has not made any of it. This also is meaningless—a great injustice.
22 What profit does a man gain from all the work and from the striving of heart that he labors at under the sun?
23 Every day his work is painful and stressful, so at night his soul does not find rest. This also is meaningless.
24 There is nothing better for a person than to simply eat and drink and find enjoyment in his labor. I saw that this truth comes from the hand of God.
25 For who can eat or who can have any kind of pleasure apart from God?
26 For to a person who pleases him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy. However, to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and storing up so that he may give it away to someone who pleases God. This also is meaningless—like chasing the wind.