Ecclesiastes:2

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* I said in my heart , "Come now , I will test you with mirth ; therefore enjoy pleasure "; but surely , this also was vanity . * I said of laughter --"Madness !"; and of mirth , "What does it accomplish ?" * I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine , while guiding my heart 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 all the days of their lives . * I made my works great , I built myself houses , and planted myself vineyards . * I made myself gardens and orchards , and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them . * I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove . * I acquired male and female servants , and had servants born in my house . Yes , I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me . * I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces . I acquired male and female singers , the delights of the sons of men , and musical instruments of all kinds . * So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem . Also my wisdom remained with me . * Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them . I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure , For my heart rejoiced in all my labor ; And this was my reward from all my labor . * Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled ; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind . There was no profit under the sun . * Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly ; For what can the man do who succeeds the king ?-- Only what he has already done . * Then I saw that wisdom excels folly As light excels darkness . * The wise man 's eyes are in his head , But the fool walks in darkness . Yet I myself perceived That the same event happens to them all . * So I said in my heart , "As it happens to the fool , It also happens 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 than of the fool forever , Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come . And how does a wise man die ? As the fool ! * Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me , for all is vanity and grasping for the wind . * Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun , because I must leave it to the man who will come after me . * And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool ? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun . This also is vanity . * Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun . * For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom , knowledge , and skill ; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it . This also is vanity and a great evil . * For what has man for all his labor , and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun ? * For all his days are sorrowful , and his work burdensome ; even in the night his heart takes no rest . This also is vanity . * Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink , and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor . This also , I saw , was from the hand of God . * For who can eat , or who can have enjoyment , more than I ? * For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight ; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting , that he may give to him who is good before God . This also is vanity and grasping for the wind .

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