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chapter 2
1
I said
in my heart: I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things. And I
saw that this also was vanity.
2 Laughter I counted error: and to mirth I said: Why
art thou vainly deceived?
3 I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from
wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly, till I might
see what was profitable for the children of men: and what they ought to do
under the sun, all the days of their life.
4 I made me great works, I built me houses, and planted
vineyards,
5 I made gardens, and orchards, and set them with trees
of all kinds,
6 And I made me ponds of water, to water therewith the
wood of the young trees,
7 I got me menservants, and maidservants, and had a
great family: and herds of oxen, and great flocks of sheep, above all that were
before me in Jerusalem:
8 I heaped together for myself silver and gold, and the
wealth of kings, and provinces: I made me singing men, and singing women, and
the delights of the sons of men, cups and vessels to serve to pour out wine:
9 And I surpassed in riches all that were before me in
Jerusalem: my wisdom also remained with me.
10 And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not:
and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself
in the things which I had prepared: and esteemed this my portion, to make use
of my own labour.
11 And when I turned myself to all the works which my
hands had wrought, and to the labours wherein I had laboured in vain, I saw in
all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the
sun.
12 I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and
folly, (What is man, said I, that he can follow the King his maker?)
13 And I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as much as
light differeth from darkness.
14 The eyes of a wise man are in his head: the fool
walketh in darkness: and I learned that they were to die both alike.
15 And I said in my heart: If the death of the fool and
mine shall be one, what doth it avail me, that I have applied myself more to
the study of wisdom? And speaking with my own mind, I perceived that this also
was vanity.
16 For there shall be no remembrance of the wise no
more than of the fool for ever, and the times to come shall cover all things
together with oblivion: the learned dieth in like manner as the unlearned.
17 And therefore I was weary of my life, when I saw
that all things under the sun are evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit.
18 Again I hated all my application wherewith I had
earnestly laboured under the sun, being like to have an heir after me,
19 Whom I know not whether he will be a wise man or a
fool, and he shall have rule over all my labours with which I have laboured and
been solicitous: and is there any thing so vain?
20 Wherefore I left off and my heart renounced
labouring any more under the sun.
21 For when a man laboureth in wisdom, and knowledge,
and carefulness, he leaveth what he hath gotten to an idle man: so this also is
vanity, and a great evil.
22 For what profit shall a man have of all his labour,
and vexation of spirit, with which he bath been tormented under the sun?
23 All his days axe full of sorrows and miseries, even
in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?
24 Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his
soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.
25 Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?
26 God hath given to a man that is good in his sight,
wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and
superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that
hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the
mind.
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