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Ecclesiastes 2:12-26 — Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless
Eccl.2.12-26
12So I turned to consider wisdom, madness, and folly; for what can the man who comes after the king do? Only what has already been done. 13And I saw that wisdom has an advantage over folly, as light has an advantage over darkness. 14The wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness; yet I also knew that one common fate comes to them all. 15Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; so why have I then become wiser?” And I said in my heart that this too is futility. 16For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise any more than of the fool, since in the days to come everything will be forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me; for everything is futility and a chasing after wind. 18I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. 19And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will rule over all my toil, in which I toiled and acted wisely under the sun. This too is futility. 20So I turned to give my heart up to despair over all the toil at which I had toiled under the sun. 21For there is a man whose toil is done with wisdom and with knowledge and with skill, yet he must give his portion to one who has not toiled for it. This too is futility and a great evil. 22For what does a man get from all his toil and from the striving of his heart with which he toils under the sun? 23For all his days are pains, and his task is grief; even at night his heart does not lie down. This too is futility. 24There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and make himself see good in his toil. This too, I saw, is from the hand of God. 25For who can eat, and who can enjoy, more than I can? 26For to the man who is good before him, he gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and collecting, to give to the one who is good before God . This too is futility and a chasing after wind.
Translation Notes
4/11/2026
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