Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
New Living Translation
The Wise and the Foolish
12 So I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness (for who can do this better than I, the king?[a]). 13 I thought, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness. 14 For the wise can see where they are going, but fools walk in the dark.” Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate. 15 Both will die. So I said to myself, “Since I will end up the same as the fool, what’s the value of all my wisdom? This is all so meaningless!” 16 For the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten.
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- 2:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
Living Bible
12 Now I began a study of the comparative virtues of wisdom and folly, and anyone else would come to the same conclusion I did[a]— 13-14 that wisdom is of more value than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness; for the wise man sees, while the fool is blind. And yet I noticed that there was one thing that happened to wise and foolish alike— 15 just as the fool will die, so will I. So of what value is all my wisdom? Then I realized that even wisdom is futile. 16 For the wise and fool both die, and in the days to come both will be long forgotten.
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- Ecclesiastes 2:12 and anyone else would come to the same conclusion I did, literally, “for what can the man do who comes after the king?”
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.