I applied my mind to seek and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven. God has given people this miserable task to keep them occupied.

I said to myself, “Look, I have amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge.”

I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly; I learned that this too is a pursuit of the wind.

I explored with my mind how to let my body enjoy life with wine and how to grasp folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

I increased my achievements. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.

I acquired male and female servants and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned many herds of cattle and flocks, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom also remained with me.

All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.

So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” And I said to myself that this is also futile.

Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.

So I began to give myself over to despair concerning all my work that I had labored at under the sun.

I said to myself, “This happens concerning people, so that God may test them and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”

A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

Grief is better than laughter,
for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.

In my futile life I have seen everything: there is a righteous man who perishes in spite of his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in spite of his evil.

Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,

I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.

I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and seek wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

which my soul continually searches for but does not find: among a thousand people I have found one true man, but among all these I have not found a true woman.

All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night),

I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me:

The one who digs a pit may fall into it,
and the one who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

The one who quarries stones may be hurt by them;
the one who splits trees may be endangered by them.

Do not curse the king even in your thoughts,
and do not curse a rich person even in your bedroom,
for a bird of the sky may carry the message,
and a winged creature may report the matter.

Send your bread on the surface of the waters,
for after many days you may find it.

Give a portion to seven or even to eight,
for you don’t know what disaster may happen on earth.

But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.