Chapter 2

  I said in my heart, 'Pray, come, I try thee with mirth, and look thou on gladness;' and lo, even it [is] vanity.  

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  Of laughter I said, 'Foolish!' and of mirth, 'What [is] this it is doing?'  

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  I have sought in my heart to draw out with wine my appetite, (and my heart leading in wisdom), and to take hold on folly till that I see where [is] this -- the good to the sons of man of that which they do under the heavens, the number of the days of their lives.  

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  I made great my works, I builded for me houses, I planted for me vineyards.  

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  I made for me gardens and paradises, and I planted in them trees of every fruit.  

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  I made for me pools of water, to water from them a forest shooting forth trees.  

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  I got men-servants, and maid-servants, and sons of the house were to me; also, I had much substance -- herd and flock -- above all who had been before me in Jerusalem.  

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  I gathered for me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I prepared for me men-singers and women-singers, and the luxuries of the sons of man -- a wife and wives.  

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  And I became great, and increased above every one who had been before me in Jerusalem; also, my wisdom stood with me.  

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  And all that mine eyes asked I kept not back from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labour, and this hath been my portion, from all my labour,  

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  and I have looked on all my works that my hands have done, and on the labour that I have laboured to do, and lo, the whole [is] vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is no advantage under the sun!  

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  And I turned to see wisdom, and madness, and folly, but what [is] the man who cometh after the king? that which [is] already -- they have done it!  

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  And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, like the advantage of the light above the darkness.  

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  The wise! -- his eyes [are] in his head, and the fool in darkness is walking, and I also knew that one event happeneth with them all;  

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  and I said in my heart, 'As it happeneth with the fool, it happeneth also with me, and why am I then more wise?' And I spake in my heart, that also this [is] vanity:  

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  That there is no remembrance to the wise -- with the fool -- to the age, for that which [is] already, [in] the days that are coming is all forgotten, and how dieth the wise? with the fool!  

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  And I have hated life, for sad to me [is] the work that hath been done under the sun, for the whole [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.  

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  And I have hated all my labour that I labour at under the sun, because I leave it to a man who is after me.  

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  And who knoweth whether he is wise or foolish? yet he doth rule over all my labour that I have laboured at, and that I have done wisely under the sun! this also [is] vanity.  

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  And I turned round to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labour that I laboured at under the sun.  

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  For there is a man whose labour [is] in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity, and to a man who hath not laboured therein he giveth it -- his portion! Even this [is] vanity and a great evil.  

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  For what hath been to a man by all his labour, and by the thought of his heart that he laboured at under the sun?  

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  For all his days are sorrows, and his travail sadness; even at night his heart hath not lain down; this also [is] vanity.  

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  There is nothing good in a man who eateth, and hath drunk, and hath shewn his soul good in his labour. This also I have seen that it [is] from the hand of God.  

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  For who eateth and who hasteth out more than I?  

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  For to a man who [is] good before Him, He hath given wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; and to a sinner He hath given travail, to gather and to heap up, to give to the good before God. Even this [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.  

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