¹⁸ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my ^(A)barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up ^(B)for many years; relax, ^(C)eat, drink, be merry.”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ^(D)‘Fool! ^(E)This night ^(F)your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, ^(G)whose will they be?’

²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not ^(A)first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not ^(B)sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, ^(A)do it with your might,^{[a] (B)}for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.