Ecclesiastes 1:16-2:3
New King James Version
16 I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained (A)more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has [a]understood great wisdom and knowledge.” 17 (B)And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.
18 For (C)in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
The Vanity of Pleasure(D)
2 I said (E)in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with (F)mirth; [b]therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, (G)this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” 3 (H)I searched in my heart how [c]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 (I)good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 1:16 Lit. seen
- Ecclesiastes 2:1 gladness
- Ecclesiastes 2:3 Lit. to draw my flesh
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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