Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

New International Version

Wisdom Is Meaningless

¹²I, the Teacher,^(A) was king over Israel in Jerusalem.^(B) ¹³I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.^(C) What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!^(D) ¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.^(E)

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be straightened;^(F)
what is lacking cannot be counted.

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

¹⁸For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;^(J)
the more knowledge, the more grief.^(K)

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Ecclesiastes 2:14-16

New International Version

¹⁴The wise have eyes in their heads,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.^(A)

¹⁵Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”^(B)
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;^(C)
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.^(D)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!^(E)