Ecclesiastes 2

I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself!" But this too turned out to be empty.

1I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.

Note"Empty" translates the Hebrew word *hevel*, literally a breath or a puff of vapor, something thin, fleeting, and impossible to get hold of. The KJV's "vanity" carried that older sense of emptiness or futility, not conceit. The word runs through the whole book as its keynote.

2Of laughter I said, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"

2I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?

3I tried cheering my body with wine, while my mind still guided me with wisdom, and I tried taking hold of foolishness. I wanted to see what was worth doing here on earth during the few days people live.

3I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.

NoteThe experiment is deliberate, not a collapse into drinking: he says his mind stayed in charge while he sampled wine and folly, like a man testing something on himself. "Here on earth" renders the KJV's "under the heaven," a phrase for the ordinary world of human living.

4I took on great projects. I built houses for myself and planted vineyards for myself.

4I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:

NoteThe catalogue that runs through verse 8 (building projects, vineyards, gardens, reservoirs, slaves, herds, silver and gold, singers, women) matches the accounts of Solomon's wealth and works in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The speaker is presenting a royal résumé: whatever wealth could buy, he had it at the largest scale available to anyone.

5I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted every kind of fruit tree in them.

5I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:

Note"Parks" renders *pardes*, a loanword from Persian for a walled royal park or enclosed pleasure-garden, often stocked with trees and animals. The same word traveled into Greek and eventually into English as "paradise." It signals royal scale, not a backyard plot.

6I made pools of water for myself, to water a growing forest of trees.

6I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:

NoteIn a land that gets no rain through the summer, plantings on this scale needed built reservoirs and channels to keep them alive. Water engineering was expensive and conspicuous, and belongs in this list as a display of resources, not just as gardening.

7I bought male and female servants, and other servants were born in my house. I also owned more cattle, sheep, and goats than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

7I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:

NoteThe Hebrew words mean slaves, owned as property. "Servants born in my house" means children born to slaves already in the household, who belonged to the owner permanently, a settled, self-renewing workforce, and counted as wealth in the same breath as the livestock that follows.

8I piled up silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men: many women.

8I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.

Note"The treasure of kings and provinces" means tribute: payments extracted from subject kings and taxed territories. The last phrase is genuinely uncertain, the Hebrew word (*shiddah*, here doubled) appears nowhere else in the Bible, and no one knows what it means. Ancient and modern guesses include women or concubines (as here), chests of treasure, and musical instruments, which is the guess the KJV followed.

9So I became great. I had more than anyone in Jerusalem before me. And my wisdom stayed with me through it all.

9So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.

10Anything my eyes wanted, I let myself have. I held my heart back from no pleasure. My heart was glad in all my work, and that gladness was my reward for all my labor.

10And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.

Note"Reward" translates *heleq*, a person's allotted share, the ordinary word for the piece of land a family was assigned. It recurs through the book for what a person actually gets to have and hold in this life, as against what is only worked for.

11Then I looked at everything my hands had made, and at all the work I had worked so hard to do. It was all empty, like chasing the wind. Nothing was gained here under the sun.

11Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Note"Under the sun" appears about thirty times in Ecclesiastes and nowhere else in the Bible. It means life as it is lived in this visible world, the whole arena of human activity, without reference to anything beyond it. "Chasing the wind" renders a Hebrew phrase the KJV took as "vexation of spirit"; it means either herding or chasing the wind, or a longing for wind, either way, grasping at what cannot be held.

12Then I turned to look closely at wisdom, and at madness and foolishness. After all, what can the man who comes after the king do that has not already been done?

12And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.

NoteThe second half of the verse is ambiguous in Hebrew and has been read two ways since antiquity: that the man who succeeds the king can only repeat what has already been done, or that no one coming after the king could redo the experiment the king has already made with unlimited means. The rendering keeps the ambiguity rather than choosing.

13I saw that wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.

13Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

14The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in the dark. Yet I also saw that the same end comes to both of them.

14The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

Note"Eyes in his head" is an idiom for being able to see where you are going, the plain opposite of the fool stumbling in the dark. "The same end" translates *miqreh*, what befalls a person, what happens to them; here it means death, which arrives for the wise and the foolish alike.

15So I said to myself, "What happens to the fool will happen to me too. So what did I gain by being wise?" And I said to myself that this too is empty.

15Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.

16No one remembers the wise man any longer than the fool; in the days to come both will be forgotten. The wise man dies just like the fool.

16For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.

NoteBeing remembered by name after death mattered intensely in this culture, surviving in the memory of descendants and neighbors was a real form of continuing. To say both will be forgotten is to remove the one compensation a wise man might have expected.

17So I hated life, because the work that is done here under the sun weighed on me. It is all empty, like chasing the wind.

17Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

18I hated everything I had worked for here under the sun, because I have to leave it to the man who comes after me.

18Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

NoteProperty passed to the heir by fixed custom, whatever the heir was like; the man who built the estate had no say in how it was afterwards run. That legal fact is what makes the complaint in the next verse sting.

19And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will have control over everything I worked for and did skillfully here under the sun. This too is empty.

19And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

20So I set myself to give up hope over all the hard work I had done here under the sun.

20Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.

21A man may work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then must leave it all to someone who never worked for it. This too is empty, and a great wrong.

21For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Note"Fairness" renders a Hebrew word (*kishron*) found only in Ecclesiastes; it more likely means skill or competence in getting things done than moral fairness, and translations differ. The KJV chose "equity," a moral reading; others read it as "skill."

22What does a person get out of all his hard work and all the worry he pours into it here under the sun?

22For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

23Every one of his days is full of pain, and his work is nothing but grief. Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is empty.

23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

24There is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in his work. I also saw that this comes from the hand of God.

24There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

Note"Eat and drink" is a standard idiom for enjoying ordinary daily life, bread and a cup at the end of a day's work, not for feasting or indulgence. Where the KJV has "make his soul enjoy good," the Hebrew word is *nephesh*, the whole living person including appetite and throat, not a soul distinct from the body.

25For who can eat, or who can enjoy anything, apart from him?

25For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?

NoteThe end of this verse is uncertain in two ways. The Hebrew text as preserved reads "apart from me," which the KJV turned into "more than I"; the ancient Greek and Syriac versions read "apart from him," meaning apart from God, and most modern translations follow them. The verb the KJV renders "hasten hereunto" is also unclear, and may mean something like "feel" or "enjoy."

26To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But to the sinner he gives the job of gathering and piling up, only to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is empty, like chasing the wind.

26For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Note"Sinner" translates *hote'*, literally one who misses the mark or falls short. It is paired here with "the one who pleases God" (KJV "good in his sight"), so the contrast in the sentence is between two standings before God rather than between two lists of deeds.