Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
New King James Version
The End of the Wise and the Fool
12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom (A)and madness and folly;
For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
Only what he has already (B)done.
13 Then I saw that wisdom (C)excels folly
As light excels darkness.
14 (D)The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
But the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived
That (E)the same event happens to them all.
15 So I said in my heart,
“As it happens to the fool,
It also happens to me,
And why was I then more wise?”
Then I said in my heart,
“This also is vanity.”
16 For there is (F)no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool!
Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
New International Version
Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless
12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.(A)
What more can the king’s successor do
than what has already been done?(B)
13 I saw that wisdom(C) is better than folly,(D)
just as light is better than darkness.
14 The 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.(E)
15 Then I said to myself,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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