Ecclesiastes, 2

1. I thought to myself, 'Very well, I will try pleasure and see what enjoyment has to offer.' And this was futile too.

1. I said to myself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity.

2. This laughter, I reflected, is a madness, this pleasure no use at all.

2. I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?"

3. I decided to hand my body over to drinking wine, my mind still guiding me in wisdom; I resolved to embrace folly, to discover the best way for people to spend their days under the sun.

3. I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine -- my mind still guiding me with wisdom -- and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

4. I worked on a grand scale: built myself palaces, planted vineyards;

4. I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself;

5. made myself gardens and orchards, planting every kind of fruit tree in them;

5. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

6. had pools made for watering the young trees of my plantations.

6. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

7. I bought slaves, male and female, had home-born slaves as well; herds and flocks I had too, more than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

7. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

8. I amassed silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces; acquired singers, men and women, and every human luxury, chest upon chest of it.

8. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, man's delight.

9. So I grew great, greater than anyone in Jerusalem before me; nor did my wisdom leave me.

9. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me.

10. I denied my eyes nothing that they desired, refused my heart no pleasure, for I found all my hard work a pleasure, such was the return for all my efforts.

10. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

11. I then reflected on all that my hands had achieved and all the effort I had put into its achieving. What futility it all was, what chasing after the wind! There is nothing to be gained under the sun.

11. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

12. My reflections then turned to wisdom, stupidity and folly. For instance, what can the successor of a king do? What has been done already.

12. So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what he has already done.

13. More is to be gained from wisdom than from folly, just as one gains more from light than from darkness; this, of course, I see:

13. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

14. The wise have their eyes open, the fool walks in the dark. No doubt! But I know, too, that one fate awaits them both.

14. The wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness; and yet I perceived that one fate comes to all of them.

15. 'Since the fool's fate', I thought to myself, 'will be my fate too, what is the point of my having been wise?' I realised that this too is futile.

15. Then I said to myself, "What befalls the fool will befall me also; why then have I been so very wise?" And I said to myself that this also is vanity.

16. For there is no lasting memory for the wise or the fool, and in the days to come both will be forgotten; the wise, no less than the fool, must die.

16. For of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise man dies just like the fool!

17. Life I have come to hate, for what is done under the sun disgusts me, since all is futility and chasing after the wind.

17. So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

18. All I have toiled for under the sun and now bequeath to my successor I have come to hate;

18. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me;

19. who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all the work into which I have put my efforts and wisdom under the sun. That is futile too.

19. and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

20. I have come to despair of all the efforts I have expended under the sun.

20. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,

21. For here is one who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully and must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This is futile too, and grossly unjust;

21. because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

22. for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun-

22. What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?

23. since his days are full of sorrow, his work is full of stress and even at night he has no peace of mind? This is futile too.

23. For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.

24. There is no happiness except in eating and drinking, and in enjoying one's achievements; and I see that this too comes from God's hand;

24. There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God;

25. for who would get anything to eat or drink, unless all this came from him?

25. for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

26. Wisdom, knowledge and joy, God gives to those who please him, but on the sinner he lays the task of gathering and storing up for someone else who is pleasing to him. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.

26. For to the man who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.