Ecclesiastes 2:12-23

New International Version

Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

¹²Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
    and also madness and folly.^(A)
What more can the king’s successor do
    than what has already been done?^(B)
¹³I saw that wisdom^(C) is better than folly,^(D)
    just as light is better than darkness.
¹⁴The wise have eyes in their heads,
    while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
    that the same fate overtakes them both.^(E)

¹⁵Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”^(F)
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;^(G)
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.^(H)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!^(I)

Toil Is Meaningless

¹⁷So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.^(J) ¹⁸I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.^(K) ¹⁹And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish?^(L) Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²²What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?^(M) ²³All their days their work is grief and pain;^(N) even at night their minds do not rest.^(O) This too is meaningless.