¹I said, I, in my heart, Go now, let me test you with gladness, and see good; and behold, this also is vapor.

²Of laughter I said, It is boastful; and of gladness, What is this doing?

³I scouted in my heart to draw my flesh with wine, and my heart drove with wisdom, and to catch in folly, until I will see where this is good for the children of the man which they will make under the skies the number of the days of their life.

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

⁵I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them trees of every kind of fruit.

⁶I made pools of water for myself, to water from them a forest of sprouting trees.

⁷I acquired slaves and female slaves; and sons of the house were mine; also many livestock, cattle and flocks were mine, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.

⁸I gathered for myself also silver and gold, and treasure of kings and the provinces; I made for myself male singers and female singers, and the delights of the children of man, a breast and breasts.

⁹I became great and added more than all who was before me in Jerusalem; even my wisdom stood by me.

¹⁰And all that my eyes asked, I did not withhold from them; I did not restrain my heart from any gladness, for my heart was joyful from all my toil, and this was my portion from all my toil.

¹¹I turned, I, to all my works that my hands had done, and to the toil that I had toiled to do; and behold, everything was vapor and a striving after wind, and there was no advantage under the sun.

¹²I turned, I, to see wisdom and madness and folly; for what is the man who will come after the king, that which they have already done?

¹³And I saw, I, that there is advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.

¹⁴The wise, his eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in the darkness; and I knew, I also, that one chance befalls all of them.

¹⁵And I said in my heart, the fate of the fool will befall me too, so why have I become wise, then, to excess? And I spoke in my heart that this too is vapor.

¹⁶For there is no memorial of the wise with the fool forever, since the days that are already coming, everything has been forgotten. And how the wise dies with the fool!

¹⁷And I hated life, for the work that is done under the sun was evil to me; for everything is vapor and a striving after wind.

¹⁸And I hated all my toil that I was laboring at under the sun, which I will settle upon the man who will be after me.

¹⁹And who knows whether he will be wise or senseless? Yet he will rule over all my toil that I toiled at and in which I was wise under the sun. This too is vapor.

²⁰And I turned to make my heart despair over all the toil that I toiled at under the sun.

²¹For there is a man whose toil is with wisdom and with knowledge and with skill, yet to a man who did not toil at it he will give it as his portion. This too is vapor and a great evil.

²²For what befalls a man in all his toil and the striving of his heart, for which he labors under the sun?

²³For all his days are pains, and vexation is his task; even at night his heart does not lie down. This too is vapor.

²⁴There is no good for a man that he should eat and drink and show his being good in his toil. This too I saw, I, that it is from the hand of God.

²⁵For who will eat, and who will hasten, apart from me?

²⁶For to the man who is good before him he gives wisdom and knowledge and gladness, but to the sinner he gives a task, to gather and to collect, to give to one who is good before God. This too is vapor and a striving after wind.