¹⁷ And I ^(A)applied my heart to know wisdom and to know ^(B)madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but ^(C)a striving after wind.

³ I ^(A)searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on ^(B)folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

²¹ but ^(A)test everything; hold fast what is good.

¹⁰ And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart ^(A)found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my ^(B)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 ^(C)vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing ^(D)to be gained under the sun.

The Vanity of Living Wisely

^12 (E)So I turned to consider ^(F)wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only ^(G)what has already been done.

²³ All this I have tested by wisdom. ^(A)I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. ²⁴ That which has been is far off, and ^(B)deep, very deep; ^(C)who can find it out?

^25 (D)I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.

¹³ And I ^(A)applied my heart^[a] to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy ^(B)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 ^(C)vanity^[b] and a striving after wind.^[c]