Study Desk

So I turned to see wisdom, madness, and simpleminded folly. What will the man do who will come after the king except what has already been done?

Then I said in my heart, "As is the fate of the fool, so will my fate be also. Why then have I been extremely wise?" So I said in my heart, "This too is vanity."

So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is vanity and striving after wind.

For to a man who is good before Him, He has given wisdom and knowledge and gladness, while to the sinner He has given the endeavor of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good before God. This too is vanity and striving after wind.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

I know that everything God does will be forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it—God has so worked that men should fear Him.

For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same fate for each of them. As one dies so dies the other, and they all have the same breath. So there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity.

So I lauded the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living.

When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the success to their masters except to look on with their eyes?

As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. He will carry nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can bring in his hand.

This also is a sickening evil—exactly as a man came, so will he go. So what is the advantage to him who labors for the wind?

a man to whom God gives riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God does not empower him to eat from them, for a foreigner eats from them. This is vanity and a sickening evil.

For as the crackling sound of thorn bushes under a pot,So is the laughter of the fool;And this too is vanity.

Also, do not give your heart to all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your slave cursing you.

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus. This too is vanity.

So I laud gladness, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will join with him in his labor throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.

Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish seized in an evil net and birds seized in a trap, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." But the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heard.

Dead flies make a perfumer's oil stink, so a little simpleminded folly is weightier than wisdom and honor.