All Is Vanity

1 The words of ^(A)the Preacher,^[a] the son of David, ^(B)king in Jerusalem.

The Vanity of Wisdom

¹² I ^(Q)the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ And I ^(R)applied my heart^[f] to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy ^(S)business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹⁴ I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is ^(T)vanity^[g] and a striving after wind.^[h]

¹⁶ I said in my heart, “I have acquired great ^(V)wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ And I ^(W)applied my heart to know wisdom and to know ^(X)madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but ^(Y)a striving after wind.

The Vanity of Self-Indulgence

2 I ^(AA)said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.^{[i] 2} I ^(AB)said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” ³ I ^(AC)searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on ^(AD)folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. ⁴ I made great works. I ^(AE)built houses and planted ^(AF)vineyards for myself. ⁵ I made myself ^(AG)gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶ I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and had ^(AH)slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of ^(AI)herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. ⁸ I also gathered for myself silver and ^(AJ)gold and the treasure of ^(AK)kings and ^(AL)provinces. I got ^(AM)singers, both men and women, and many ^(AN)concubines,^[j] the delight of the sons of man.

⁹ So I became great and ^(AO)surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my ^(AP)wisdom remained with me. ¹⁰ And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart ^(AQ)found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my ^(AR)reward for all my toil. ¹¹ Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was ^(AS)vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing ^(AT)to be gained under the sun.

The Vanity of Living Wisely

^12 (AU)So I turned to consider ^(AV)wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only ^(AW)what has already been done. ¹³ Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. ^14 (AX)The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the ^(AY)same event happens to all of them. ¹⁵ Then I said in my heart, ^(AZ)“What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. ¹⁶ For of the wise as of the fool there is ^(BA)no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. ^(BB)How the wise dies just like the fool! ¹⁷ So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for ^(BC)all is vanity and a striving after wind.

The Vanity of Toil

¹⁸ I hated ^(BD)all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must ^(BE)leave it to the man who will come after me, ¹⁹ and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. ²⁰ So I ^(BF)turned about and gave my heart up to despair ^(BG)over all the toil of my labors under the sun, ²¹ because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. ²² What has a man from ^(BH)all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? ²³ For ^(BI)all his days are full of sorrow, and his ^(BJ)work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

^24 (BK)There is nothing better for a person than that he should ^(BL)eat and drink and find enjoyment^[k] in his toil. This also, I saw, is ^(BM)from the hand of God, ²⁵ for apart from him^[l] who can eat or who can have enjoyment? ²⁶ For to the one who pleases him ^(BN)God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given ^(BO)the business of gathering and collecting, ^(BP)only to give to one who pleases God. ^(BQ)This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Released from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brothers^[a]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ² For ^(A)a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.^{[b] 3} Accordingly, ^(B)she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Likewise, my brothers, ^(C)you also have died ^(D)to the law ^(E)through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, ^(F)in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work ^(G)in our members ^(H)to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the ^(I)new way of ^(J)the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.^[c]

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, ^(K)I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if ^(L)the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, ^(M)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. ^(N)For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment ^(O)that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, ^(P)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, ^(Q)deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So ^(R)the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³ Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, ^(S)sold under sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For ^(T)I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with ^(U)the law, that it is good. ¹⁷ So now ^(V)it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells ^(W)in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ^19 (X)For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, ^(Y)it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For ^(Z)I delight in the law of God, ^(AA)in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members ^(AB)another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ^(AC)this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Let Us Sing Songs of Praise