Ecclesiastes 2:12-23 - The Living Must Abandon The Work Of Their Hands To Others At Death
12 Next, I considered wisdom, as well as delusion and folly. What can anyone [do] who will come after the king that has not already been done? 13 I realized that wisdom has an advantage over folly, just as light has an advantage over darkness.
14 {The wise man can see where he is walking}, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that both of them suffer the same fate. 15 So I said {to myself}, "{If I also suffer the same fate as the fool}, {what advantage is my great wisdom}?" So I said {to myself}, "This also [is] vanity!" 16 Certainly no one will remember the wise man or the fool in {future generations}. When [future] days come, both will have been forgotten already. How [is it that] the wise man dies the same as the fool? 17 So I hated life because the work done under the sun [is] grievous to me. For everything [is] vanity and chasing wind!
18 So I hated all my toil with which I have toiled under the sun, for I must leave it behind to someone who will be after me. 19 And who knows [whether] he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will exercise control of all [the fruit of] my toil with which I toiled wisely under the sun. This also [is] vanity! 20 So {I began to despair} of all the toil with which I toiled under the sun. 21 For although a person may toil with great wisdom and skill, he must leave his reward to someone who has not toiled for it. This also [is] vanity and a great calamity. 22 For what does a person receive for all his toil and in the longing of his heart with which he toils under the sun? 23 All his days [are] painful, his labor [brings] grief, and his heart cannot rest at night. This also [is] vanity!