Ecclesiastes 2:1-15

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Futility of Self-Indulgence

2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity.^{(A) 2} I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”^{(B) 3} I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life. ⁴ I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself;^{(C) 5} I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.^{(D) 6} I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. ⁸ I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, many concubines.^[a](E)

⁹ So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me.^{(F) 10} Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure from all my toil, and this was my reward from all my toil.^{(G) 11} Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.^(H)

Wisdom and Joy Given to One Who Pleases God

¹² So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly, for what can the king’s successor do? Only what has already been done.^{(I) 13} Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them.^{(J) 15} Then I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity.^(K)