10 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 athis was my reward from all my labor.
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all wasavanity and grasping for the wind. Therewas no profit under the sun.
The End of the Wise and the Fool
12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom aand madness and folly; For what can the man do who succeeds the king?— Only what he has already bdone.
13 Then I saw that wisdom aexcels folly As light excels darkness.
14aThe wise man’s eyes are in his head, But the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived That bthe same event happens to them all.
15 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.”
16 For thereisano 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!
17 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.
18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because aI must leave it to the man who will come after me.
19 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.
20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.
21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his1 heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22aFor what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?
23 For all his days areasorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
24aNothing 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.
25 For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment,1 more than I?
26 For God gives awisdom 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 bhe may give to himwhois good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
In chapter 2, Solomon launches into what he had learned about his works of building material things like houses and gardens and seeking even greater wealth. His conclusion? All of these material achievements were nothing but vanity, a grasping after wind.
He finds no real, sustained profit in them, nothing that truly added to his quality of life, no lasting fulfillment. He does not mean they resulted in no sense of achievement or passing pleasure, but that their fruit never truly fulfilled God's purpose for man. Therefore, those things are poor substitutes for a sustained sense of well-being. He then proceeds into an exploration of wine and entertainment. These are simply another form of materialism, ways of pleasing the flesh. He concludes that they, too, are folly, a mad pursuit.
Solomon is forced to ask himself, "What can the person who follows Solomon do that Solomon has not already done? He did it better than his successor can ever hope to do, because God had endowed him with so many gifts. His conclusion: His successor will be able to do only what he has already done.
Wisdom does have goodness to it; it is not without value. It is certainly far better than foolishness, but it is not the ultimate source of reliance. One cannot put his trust in his worldly wisdom.
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