Ecclesiastes 2:10-26

¹⁰Anything my eyes desired, I did not deny myself. I refused my heart no pleasure. For my heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

¹¹Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

¹²Then I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been accomplished?

¹³And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:

¹⁴The wise man has eyes in his head,

but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.

¹⁵So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.

¹⁶For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

¹⁷So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

¹⁸I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

¹⁹And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.

²⁰So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.

²¹When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil.

²²For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?

²³Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

²⁴Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.

²⁵For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?

²⁶To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:10-26

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Cross References for Ecclesiastes 2:10-26

The Berean Standard Bible