1Therefore I said in mine heart, I shall go, and I shall flow in delights, and I shall use goods; and I saw also that this was vanity.

2And laughing I areckoned error, and I said to joy, What art thou, deceived in vain?

3I thought in mine heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I should lead over my soul to wisdom, and that I would eschew folly, till I should see, what were profitable to the sons of men; in which deed the number of days of their life under the sun is needful.

4I magnified, either made great, my works, I builded houses to me, and I planted vines;

5I made yards [or gardens] and orchards, and I set those with trees of all kinds;

6and I made cisterns of waters, for to water the wood of [the] trees growing.

7I had in possession servants and handmaids; and I had much meine, and droves of great beasts, and great flocks of sheep, over all men that were before me in Jerusalem.

8I gathered together to me silver and gold, and the castles of kings and of provinces; I made to me singers and singeresses, and [the] delights of the sons of men, and cups and vessels in service, to pour out wines;

9and I passed in riches all men that were before me in Jerusalem. Also wisdom dwelled stably with me,

10and all things which mine eyes desired, I denied not to them; neither I refrained mine heart, that not it used all lust, and delighted itself in these things which I had made ready; and I deemed this my part, if I used my travail.

11And when I had turned me to all the works which mine hands had made, and to the travails in which I had sweated in vain, I saw in all things vanity and torment of soul, and that nothing under [the] sun dwelleth.

12I passed forth to behold wisdom, and errors, and folly; I said, What is a man, that he may pursue [or follow] the king, his maker?

13And I saw, that wisdom went so much before folly, as much as light is diverse from darknesses.

14The eyes of a wise man be in his head, a fool goeth in darknesses; and I learned, that one perishing was of ever either.

15And I said in mine heart, If one death shall be both of the fool and of me, what profiteth it to me, that I gave more busyness to wisdom? And I spake with my soul, and perceived, that this also was vanity.

16For the mind of a wise man shall not be, in like manner as neither that of a fool, without end, and [the] times to coming [or to come] shall cover all things altogether with forgetting; a learned man dieth in like manner as an unlearned man.

17And therefore it annoyed me of my life, seeing that all things under [the] sun be evil, and that all things be vanity and torment of the spirit.

18Again I cursed all my busyness, by which I travailed most studiously under [the] sun; and I shall have an heir after me,

19whom I know not, whether he shall be wise either a fool; and he shall be lord in my travails, for which I sweated greatly, and was busy; and is there anything so vain?

20Wherefore I ceased, and mine heart forsook for to travail further under [the] sun.

21For why when another man travaileth in wisdom, and teaching, and busyness, he leaveth things gotten to an idle man; and therefore this is vanity, and great evil.

22For why what shall it profit to a man of all his travail, and torment of spirit, with which he was tormented under [the] sun?

23All his days be full of sorrows and mischiefs, and by night he resteth not in soul; and whether this is not vanity?

24Whether it is not better to eat and drink, and to show to his soul [the] goods of his travails? and this thing is of the hand of God.

25Who shall devour so, and shall flow in delights, as I have?

26God gave wisdom, and knowing, and gladness to a good man in his sight; but he gave torment, and superfluous busyness to a sinner, that he increase, and gather together, and give to him that pleaseth God; but also this is vanity, and vain busyness of soul.