The Teacher, Chapter 2

I said to mine heart,
“Come now, I will test thee with mirth and pleasure, enjoy thyself.”
yet, behold, I found this also is vanity."

I said of laughter, “It is mad,”
and of mirth, “What doeth it?”

I sought to wisely give myself over to wine,
and to embrace folly,
so that I might see what was good for mankind:
what they should do on earth
in the few days of their life.

I made me great works:
I builded me houses,
I planted me vineyards:
I made me gardens and orchards,
and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits.

I made me reservoirs, to water therewith
the groves that bringeth forth trees.

I got me servants and maidens,
and had servants born into my house;
also I had great possessions
of cattle, above all those that were before me.

I gathered me also silver and gold,
and the particular treasure of kings and of the provinces:
I gat me men singers and women singers,
the pleasures courtesans and concubines.

So I was great, and increased more
than all that were before me:
yet also my wisdom remained with me.

Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them,
I withheld not my heart from any joy,
for my heart rejoiced in all my labour:
this was the reward of my toil.

Then, I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought,
and on the labour that I had laboured to do:
and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
and there was no profit under the sun.

And I turned in towards myself and beheld wisdom, and madness, and folly:
for what more can the man do who cometh after the king?
Only that which hath been already done.

Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly,
as far as light excelleth darkness.

The wise man's eyes are in his head;
but the fool walketh in darkness:
and yet I perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

Then said I in my heart,
“As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me;
and why was I then more wise?”
Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.”

For there is no more remembrance of the wise man
than of the fool;
in the days to come all shall be forgotten.

And how dieth the wise man? As the fool.

Therefore I hated life;
because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me:
for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun,
because I could have left it to the man that shall be after me,
and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?
Yet he shall have rule over all things wherein I have laboured,
and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun.
This is also vanity.

Therefore I alloweth my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.

For there is a man whose labours are in wisdom, in knowledge, and skill,
yet he must leave his legacies to a man who has not laboured for it.
This also is futility and a great evil.

For what doth man receiveth for all his labour, and of the anxieties of his heart,
for which he hath laboured under the sun?

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief;
yea, his heart taketh not rest even in the night.
This is also meaningless.

There is nothing better for a man,
than that he should eat and drink,
and that he should make his soul enjoy well his labour.
This also I saw, that it was what the earth provideth.

A good man hath wisdom, and knowledge, and joy.
And it is the sinner who travaileth, gathereth and heapeth up,
only in order to hand to him who is perceived good.
This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.