Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Christian Standard Bible

The Relative Value of Wisdom

¹² Then I turned to consider wisdom,^(A) madness, and folly, for what will the king’s successor^[a] be like? He^[b] will do what has already been done.^{(B) 13} And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.^(C)

Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.^{(E) 15} So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” ^(F) And I said to myself that this is also futile. ¹⁶ For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise,^(G) since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies just like the fool? ¹⁷ Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.