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Ecclesiastes 2:13-26

Ecclesiastes 2:13-26 CSB

And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.  The wise person has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.  Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.  So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise? ”  And I said to myself that this is also futile. For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise,  since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies just like the fool? Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind. I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun  because I must leave it to the one who comes after me.  And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?  Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. This too is futile. So I began to give myself over  to despair concerning all my work that I had labored at under the sun. When there is a person whose work was done with wisdom, knowledge, and skill,  and he must give his portion to a person who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great wrong. For what does a person get with all his work and all his efforts  that he labors at under the sun? For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful;  even at night, his mind does not rest.  This too is futile. There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy  , his work.  I have seen that even this is from God’s hand,  because who can eat and who can enjoy life  apart from him?  For to the person who is pleasing in his sight, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy;  but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight.  This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

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