http://brojed.org/cms/components/com_zefaniabible/images/bible_100.jpg http://brojed.org/cms/index.php?option=com_zefaniabible&view=standard&a=kgJ82&b=21&c=2&Itemid=101&ord=040526 http://brojed.org/cms/index.php?option=com_zefaniabible&view=standard&a=kgJ82&b=21&c=2&Itemid=101&ord=040526 Zefania Bible en-gb brojed.org Ecclesiastes chapter 2 http://brojed.org/cms/index.php?option=com_zefaniabible&view=standard&a=kgJ82&b=21&c=2&Itemid=101&ord=040526 http://brojed.org/cms/index.php?option=com_zefaniabible&view=standard&a=kgJ82&b=21&c=2&Itemid=101&ord=040526 Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:05:23 +0000 I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure"; but surely, this also [was] vanity. I said of laughter -- "Madness!"; and of mirth, "What does it accomplish?" I searched in my heart [how] to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what [was] good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all [kinds] of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, [and] musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all [was] vanity and grasping for the wind. [There was] no profit under the sun. Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly; For what [can] the man [do] who succeeds the king? -- [Only] what he has already done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly As light excels darkness. The wise man's eyes [are] in his head, But the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived That the same event happens to them all. So I said in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, It also happens to me, And why was I then more wise?" Then I said in my heart, "This also [is] vanity." For [there is] no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, Since all that now [is] will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise [man] die? As the fool! Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun [was] distressing to me, for all [is] vanity and grasping for the wind. Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also [is] vanity. Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. For there is a man whose labor [is] with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also [is] vanity and a great evil. For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days [are] sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. Nothing [is] better for a man [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? For [God] gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who [is] good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to [him who is] good before God. This also [is] vanity and grasping for the wind.