Ecclesiastes 2:11-20

2:11 Yet when I reflected on everything I had accomplished

and on all the effort that I had expended to accomplish it,

I concluded: “All these achievements and possessions are ultimately profitless –

like chasing the wind!

There is nothing gained from them on earth.”

Wisdom is Better than Folly

2:12 Next, I decided to consider wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas.

For what more can the king’s successor do than what the king has already done?

2:13 I realized that wisdom is preferable to folly,

just as light is preferable to darkness:

2:14 The wise man can see where he is going, but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also realized that the same fate happens to them both.

2:15 So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me!

Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively wise?”

So I lamented to myself,

“The benefits of wisdom are ultimately meaningless!”

2:16 For the wise man, like the fool, will not be remembered for very long,

because in the days to come, both will already have been forgotten.

Alas, the wise man dies – just like the fool!

2:17 So I loathed life because what

happens on earth seems awful to me;

for all the benefits of wisdom are futile – like chasing the wind.

Futility of Being a Workaholic

2:18 So I loathed all the fruit of my effort,

for which I worked so hard on earth,

because I must leave it behind in the hands of my successor.

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!

2:20 So I began to despair about all the fruit of my labor

for which I worked so hard on earth.