Ecclesiastes 2:12-16

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹² I turned my attention to consider wisdom, madness, and stupidity—for what will the man do who will succeed the king? Only what has already been done. ¹³ I saw wisdom is better than stupidity, as light is better than darkness. ¹⁴ The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also knew that one fate meets^[a] them all. ¹⁵ So I said in my heart, “The same fate that meets the fool will also meet me. So why then have I been overly wise?” So I said in my heart, “This too is just vapor.”

¹⁶ No one will remember the wise man or the fool for long. In days to come, all of them will already be forgotten. How does the wise man die? Just like the fool.