Ecclesiastes:2

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* I said in my heart : I will go , and abound with delights , and enjoy good things . And I saw that this also was vanity . * Laughter I counted error : and to mirth I said : Why art thou vainly deceived ? * I thought in my heart , to withdraw my flesh from wine , that I might turn my mind to wisdom , and might avoid folly , till I might see what was profitable for the children of men : and what they ought to do under the sun , all the days of their life . * I made me great works , I built me houses , and planted vineyards , * I made gardens , and orchards , and set them with trees of all kinds , * And I made me ponds of water , to water therewith the wood of the young trees , * I got me menservants , and maidservants , and had a great family : and herds of oxen , and great flocks of sheep , above all that were before me in Jerusalem : * I heaped together for myself silver and gold , and the wealth of kings , and provinces : I made me singing men , and singing women , and the delights of the sons of men , cups and vessels to serve to pour out wine : * And I surpassed in riches all that were before me in Jerusalem : my wisdom also remained with me . * And whatsoever my eyes desired , I refused them not : and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure , and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared : and esteemed this my portion , to make use of my own labour . * And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought , and to the labours wherein I had laboured in vain , I saw in all things vanity , and vexation of mind , and that nothing was lasting under the sun . * I passed further to behold wisdom , and errors and folly , (What is man , said I , that he can follow the King his maker ?) * And I saw that wisdom excelled folly , as much as light differeth from darkness . * The eyes of a wise man are in his head : the fool walketh in darkness : and I learned that they were to die both alike . * And I said in my heart : If the death of the fool and mine shall be one , what doth it avail me , that I have applied myself more to the study of wisdom ? And speaking with my own mind , I perceived that this also was vanity . * For there shall be no remembrance of the wise no more than of the fool for ever , and the times to come shall cover all things together with oblivion : the learned dieth in like manner as the unlearned . * And therefore I was weary of my life , when I saw that all things under the sun are evil , and all vanity and vexation of spirit . * Again I hated all my application wherewith I had earnestly laboured under the sun , being like to have an heir after me , * Whom I know not whether he will be a wise man or a fool , and he shall have rule over all my labours with which I have laboured and been solicitous : and is there any thing so vain ? * Wherefore I left off and my heart renounced labouring any more under the sun . * For when a man laboureth in wisdom , and knowledge , and carefulness , he leaveth what he hath gotten to an idle man : so this also is vanity , and a great evil . * For what profit shall a man have of all his labour , and vexation of spirit , with which he bath been tormented under the sun ? * All his days axe full of sorrows and miseries , even in the night he doth not rest in mind : and is not this vanity ? * Is it not better to eat and drink , and to shew his soul good things of his labours ? and this is from the hand of God . * Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I ? * God hath given to a man that is good in his sight , wisdom , and knowledge , and joy : but to the sinner he hath given vexation , and superfluous care , to heap up and to gather together , and to give it to him that hath pleased God : but this also is vanity , and a fruitless solicitude of the mind .

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