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11 (A)But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the fruit of the toil for which I had toiled so much, see! all was vanity and a chase after wind. There is no profit under the sun. 12 What about one who succeeds a king? He can do only what has already been done.[a]

Study of Wisdom and Folly. I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly. 13 And I saw that wisdom has as much profit over folly as light has over darkness.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:12 What…been done: the verse is difficult and elliptical. The words “He can do only” have been added for clarity. The two halves of the verse have been reversed. The author argues that it is useless to repeat the royal experiment described in vv. 1–11. The results would only be the same.