Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
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)
14 The wise person has eyes in his head,
but the fool walks in darkness.(D)
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?
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Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
English Standard Version
The Vanity of Living Wisely
12 (A)So I turned to consider (B)wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only (C)what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 (D)The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the (E)same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, (F)“What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is (G)no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. (H)How the wise dies just like the fool!
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
