1I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless.

2So I said, “Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?”

3After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.

12So I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness (for who can do this better than I, the king?2:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.).

13I thought, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.

14For 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.

15Both 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!”

16For 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.

18I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned.

19And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless!

20So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world.