Ecclesiastes 2:13-14

2:13 I realized that wisdom is preferable to folly, ¹ 

just as light is preferable to darkness:

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

Yet I also realized that the same fate ³  happens to them both. ⁴ 

[2:13]  ¹ tn Heb “and I saw that there is profit for wisdom more than folly.”

[2:14]  ² tn Heb “has his eyes in his head.” The term עַיִן (’ayin, “eye”) is used figuratively in reference to mental and spiritual faculties (BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.a). The term “eye” is a metonymy of cause (eye) for effect (sight and perception).

[2:14]  ³ sn The common fate to which Qoheleth refers is death.

[2:14]  ⁴ tn The term כֻּלָּם (kullam, “all of them”) denotes “both of them.” This is an example of synecdoche of general (“all of them”) for the specific (“both of them,” that is, both the wise man and the fool).