Ecclesiastes 1-3

Complete Jewish Bible

1 The words of Kohelet the son of David, king in Yerushalayim:

¹² I, Kohelet, have been king over Isra’el in Yerushalayim. ¹³ I wisely applied myself to seek out and investigate everything done under heaven. What a bothersome task God has given humanity to keep us occupied! ¹⁴ I have seen all the activities that are done under the sun, and it’s all pointless, feeding on wind.

¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have acquired much wisdom, more than anyone ruling Yerushalayim before me.” Yes, I experienced a great deal of wisdom and knowledge; ¹⁷ yet when I applied myself to understanding wisdom and knowledge, as well as stupidity and folly, I came to see that this too was merely feeding on wind.

2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test myself with pleasure and enjoying good things”; but this too was pointless. ² Of laughter I said, “This is stupid,” and of pleasure, “What’s the use of it?”

³ I searched my mind for how to gratify my body with wine and, with my mind still guiding me with wisdom, how to pursue foolishness; my object was to find out what was the best thing for people to do during the short time they have under heaven to live. ⁴ I worked on a grand scale — I built myself palaces, planted myself vineyards, ⁵ and made myself gardens and parks; in them I planted all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶ I made myself pools from which to water the trees springing up in the forest. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and I had my home-born slaves as well. I also had growing herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than anyone before me in Yerushalayim. ⁸ I amassed silver and gold, the wealth of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, things that provide sensual delight, and a good many concubines. ⁹ So I grew great, surpassing all who preceded me in Yerushalayim; my wisdom, too, stayed with me. ¹⁰ I denied my eyes nothing they wanted. I withheld no pleasure from myself; for I took pleasure in all my work, and this was my reward for all my work. ¹¹ Then I looked at all that my hands had accomplished and at the work I had toiled at; and I saw that it was all meaningless and feeding on wind, and that there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

¹² So I decided to look more carefully at wisdom, stupidity and foolishness; for what can the man who succeeds the king do, except what has already been done? ¹³ I saw that wisdom is more useful than foolishness, just as light is more useful than darkness.

¹⁵ So I said to myself, “If the same thing happens to the fool as to me, then what did I gain by being wise?” and I thought to myself, “This too is pointless. ¹⁶ For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered, inasmuch as in the times to come, everything will long ago have been forgotten. The wise man, no less than the fool, must die.”

¹⁷ So I came to hate life, because the activities done under the sun were loathesome to me, since everything is meaningless and feeding on wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things for which I had worked under the sun, because I saw that I would have to leave them to the man who will come after me. ¹⁹ Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the things I worked for and which demonstrated how wise I am under the sun. This too is pointless. ²⁰ Thus I came to despair over all the things I had worked for under the sun. ²¹ Here is a man whose work is done with wisdom, knowledge and skill; yet he has to leave it to someone who has put no work into it. This is not only pointless, but a great evil. ²² For what does a person get from all his efforts and ambitions permeating the work he does under the sun? ²³ His whole life is one of pain, and his work is full of stress; even at night his mind gets no rest. This too is pointless. ²⁴ So there is nothing better for a man to do than eat, drink and and let himself enjoy the good that results from his work. I also realized that this is from God’s hand. ²⁵ For who will eat and who will enjoy except me? ²⁶ For to the man who is good from [God’s] viewpoint he gives wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of collecting and accumulating things to leave to him who is good from God’s viewpoint. This too is pointless and feeding on wind.

⁹ What does the worker gain from his efforts? ¹⁰ I have seen the task God has given humanity to keep us occupied. ¹¹ He has made everything suited to its time; also, he has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for them to do than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. ¹³ Still, the fact that everyone can eat and drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work, is a gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that

¹⁷ I said to myself, “The righteous and the wicked God will judge, because there is a right time for every intention and for every action.”

¹⁸ Concerning people, I said to myself, “God is testing them, so that they will see that by themselves they are just animals. ¹⁹ After all, the same things that happen to people happen to animals, the very same thing — just as the one dies, so does the other. Yes, their breath is the same; so that humans are no better than animals; since nothing matters, anyway. ²⁰ They all go to the same place; they all come from dust, and they all return to dust. ²¹ Who knows if the spirit of a human being goes upward and the spirit of an animal goes downward into the earth?” ²² So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person to do than take joy in his activities, that that is his allotted portion; for who can enable him to see what will happen after him?