Ecclesiastes:2

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* I said in my heart , »Come now , I will test you with rejoicing . Consider goodness .« This also is vanity . * I said of laughter : »It is madness . And of pleasure : What does it do ?« * I searched in my mind how to stimulate my flesh with wine . My mind guided my heart with wisdom . I possessed foolishness until I could see what was good for the sons of men . I saw what they should do under the heavens all the days of their life . * I made great works . I built houses for myself . I planted vineyards for myself . * I made myself parks and fruit gardens , planting in them fruit-trees of all kinds . * I made water pools from which to water the young trees . * I acquired male and female servants , and they gave birth to sons and daughters in my house . I had great wealth of herds and flocks , more than all who were in Jerusalem before me . * I gathered silver and gold and the wealth of kings and of countries . I acquired male and female singers , the delights of the sons of men , girls of all sorts to be my brides . * I became great and increased more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem and my wisdom remained with me . * Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them . I did not withhold joy from my heart . My heart took pleasure in all my work and this was my reward . * I looked at all the works my hands accomplished . I saw everything I had worked to do . I saw that all was vanity and grasping for the wind . It was to no purpose for there was no profit under the sun . * I went again in search of wisdom and of foolish ways . What can the man do that comes after the king ? Only what he has already done . * Then I saw that wisdom is better than foolish ways just as the light is better than the dark . * The wise man 's eyes are in his head , but the foolish man walks in darkness . Yet I saw that the same event happens to them all . * Then I said in my heart : »As it happens to the fool , so it will happen to me . Why have I been so wise ?« Then I said in my heart : »This also is vanity .« * Neither the wise man nor the foolish man will be remembered for long . All that now is will be forgotten in the days to come . Death comes to both the wise and the foolish . * I hated life . Everything under the sun was evil to me . All is vanity and grasping for the wind . * I hated all the work I had done under the sun , because I would leave it behind for the man who comes after me . * Who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool ? But he will have power over all the work that I have done and in which I have been wise under the sun . This too is vanity . * My heart turned to grief over all for which I had labored and all my wisdom under the sun . * Because there is a man whose work has been done with wisdom , with knowledge , and with an expert hand . But one who has done nothing for it will have it for his heritage . This also is vanity and a great evil . * What does a man get for all his work , and for the desire of his heart with which he has done his work under the sun ? * All his days are sorrow , and his work is full of grief . Even in the night his heart has no rest . This again is vanity . * There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink , and delight in his work . This also I saw was from the hand of God . * After all , who eats and who drinks better than I ? * To the man who is good , God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy . But to the sinner he gives the work of getting goods together and storing up wealth , to give to him who is good before God . This also is vanity and grasping for the wind .

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