Ecclesiastes 2:12-26 Reading
I saw wisdom is better than folly, (vs 13, NIV).
..the same fate overtakes both fool and the wise; like the fool, the wise man too must die! (vs 16, NIV).
To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand over to the one who pleases God (vs 26, NIV).
Ecclesiastes 2:12-26
[12]After all, a king can only do what previous kings have done.So I started thinking about what it meant to be wise or reckless or foolish.
[13]Oh, I know, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.
[14]The wise can see where they are going, and fools cannot.” But I also know that the same fate is waiting for us all.
[15]I thought to myself, “I will suffer the same fate as fools. So what have I gained from being so wise?” “Nothing,” I answered, “not a thing.”
[16]No one remembers the wise, and no one remembers fools. In days to come, we will all be forgotten. We must all die — wise and foolish alike.
[17]So life came to mean nothing to me, because everything in it had brought me nothing but trouble. It had all been useless; I had been chasing the wind.
[18]Nothing that I had worked for and earned meant a thing to me, because I knew that I would have to leave it to my successor,
[19]and he might be wise, or he might be foolish — who knows? Yet he will own everything I have worked for, everything my wisdom has earned for me in this world. It is all useless.
[20]So I came to regret that I had worked so hard.
[21]You work for something with all your wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then you have to leave it all to someone who hasn’t had to work for it. It is useless, and it isn’t right!
[22]You work and worry your way through life, and what do you have to show for it?
[23]As long as you live, everything you do brings nothing but worry and heartache. Even at night your mind can’t rest. It is all useless.
[24]The best thing anyone can do is to eat and drink and enjoy what he has earned. And yet, I realized that even this comes from God.
[25]How else could you have anything to eat or enjoy yourself at all?
[26]God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who please him, but he makes sinners work, earning and saving, so that what they get can be given to those who please him. It is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.