¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.^(A) What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!^{(B) 14} I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.^(C)

¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me;^(E) I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom,^(F) and also of madness and folly,^(G) but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

¹⁵ Then I said to myself,

Timothy Charged to Oppose False Teachers

³ As I urged you when I went into Macedonia,^(A) stay there in Ephesus^(B) so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines^(C) any longer ⁴ or to devote themselves to myths^(D) and endless genealogies.^(E) Such things promote controversial speculations^(F) rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.

⁹ But avoid^(A) foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels^(B) about the law,^(C) because these are unprofitable and useless.^(D)