Ecclesiastes 1:16

Futility of Secular Wisdom

1:16 I thought to myself,

“I have become much wiser than any of my predecessors who ruled over Jerusalem;

I have acquired much wisdom and knowledge.”

Ecclesiastes 2:7

2:7 I purchased male and female slaves,

and I owned slaves who were born in my house;

I also possessed more livestock – both herds and flocks –

than any of my predecessors in Jerusalem.

Ecclesiastes 2:19

2:19 Who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool?

Yet he will be master over all the fruit of my labor

for which I worked so wisely on earth!

This also is futile!

Ecclesiastes 7:25

True Righteousness and Wisdom are Virtually Nonexistent

7:25 I tried to understand, examine, and comprehend

the role of wisdom in the scheme of things,

and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the insanity of folly.

Ecclesiastes 11:6

11:6 Sow your seed in the morning,

and do not stop working until the evening;

for you do not know which activity will succeed –

whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally.