Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 - Qohelet's Investigation Of Personal Accomplishment

⁴ I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; ⁵ I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of every kind of fruit; ⁶ I made me ponds of water, to water therewith the wood, where the trees are reared. ⁷ I acquired servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all that had been in Jerusalem before me. ⁸ I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the children of men, a wife and concubines. ⁹ And I became great, and increased more than all that had been before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. ¹⁰ And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them: I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour, and this was my portion from all my labour. ¹¹ Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that it had cost me to do them; and behold, all was vanity and pursuit of the wind, and there was no profit under the sun.