Ecclesiastes, the Preacher

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- Kapitel 2 -

The futility of pleasure

Then I said to myself, “Well, I will try to do everything that I enjoy. I will find out whether doing what I enjoy can truly enable me to be happy.” But I found out that doing that was also useless.

So I said to myself, “It is foolish to laugh all the time, and continually doing what makes me happy does not bring any lasting benefit.”

So, after thinking a lot about it, I decided to cheer myself up by drinking a lot of wine. While I was still trying to be wise, I acted stupidly. I tried to learn what people can do to be happy during the short time that they are alive on the earth.

I did great things. I caused houses to be built for myself and vineyards to be planted.

I made gardens and parks. Then I planted the gardens with many kinds of fruit trees.

I built pools of water to store water to irrigate the fruit trees.

I bought male and female slaves. Babies who later became my slaves were born in my palace. I also owned more livestock than any of the previous kings in Jerusalem had owned.

I also accumulated large amounts of silver and gold that were acquired from the treasures of kings and rulers of provinces. I owned men and women who sang for me, and I had many wives and concubines, whom men all over the world would enjoy possessing.

So I gained more power and wealth than any king who had ruled before me in Jerusalem, and I allowed my wisdom to continue to guide me.

I got everything that I saw and wanted. I did everything that I thought would enable me to be happy. All the things that I enjoyed were like a reward for all my hard work.

But then I thought about all the hard work that I had done to obtain all those things. I saw that none of my work brought me any lasting benefit. It was all like trying to control the wind.

The wise and the foolish

Then I started to think about being wise, and also about being foolish. I said to myself, “I certainly do not think that anybody will be able to do anything better than I can.”

And I thought, “Surely it is better to be wise than to be foolish, like light is better than darkness,

because wise people walk in the daylight and can see where they are going, but foolish people walk in the darkness and cannot see where they are going.” But I also realized that both wise people and foolish people eventually die.

So I said to myself, “I am very wise, but I will die at the end of my life like foolish people do. So how has it benefited me to be very wise? I do not understand why people consider that it is valuable to be wise.

Wise people and foolish people all die. And after we die, we will all eventually be forgotten.”

So I hated being alive, because all the work that we do here on the earth distressed me. It all seemed to be useless, like trying to control the wind.

The futility of labor

I also began to hate all the hard work that I had done here on the earth, because when I die, everything that I have acquired will belong to the one who inherits it after me.

And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? But even if he is foolish, he will acquire all the things that I worked very hard and wisely to get.

I thought about all the hard work that I had done in this world. It seemed useless, and I became depressed.

Some people work wisely and skillfully, using the things that they have learned. But when they die, they leave everything, and someone who has not worked for those things acquires them. That fact also seemed to be senseless and caused me to be discouraged.

So it is useless for people to work for all they do.

Every day the work that they do causes them to experience pain and to be worried. And during the night their minds are not able to rest. That also shows how temporary everything is.

So I decided that the best thing that we can do is to enjoy what we eat and drink, and also to enjoy our work. And I realized that those things are what God intends for us.

There is absolutely no one who is able to enjoy those things if God does not give those things to him.

God enables those who please him to be wise, to know many things, and to enjoy many things. But if sinful people work hard and become rich, God can take their money away from them and give it to those who please him. However, the reason for that is also something that is difficult for me to understand. It seems useless that they worked so hard; it is like trying to control the wind.

The futility of pleasure

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure;” and behold, this also was vanity.

I said of laughter, “It is foolishness;” and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?”

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.

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

I made myself pools of water, to water the forest where trees were grown.

I bought male servants and female servants, and had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem.

I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men: musical instruments of all sorts.

So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me.

Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.

Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

The wise and the foolish

I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly; for what can the king’s successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.

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

The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.

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

For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory forever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

The futility of labor

I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.

For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For what does a man have of all his labor and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.

For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.