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10 Anything I wanted I took and did not restrain myself from any joy. I even found great pleasure in hard work. This pleasure was, indeed, my only reward for all my labors.

11 But as I looked at everything I had tried, it was all so useless, a chasing of the wind, and there was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

12 Now I began a study of the comparative virtues of wisdom and folly, and anyone else would come to the same conclusion I did[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 2:12 and anyone else would come to the same conclusion I did, literally, “for what can the man do who comes after the king?”

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;(A)
    nothing was gained under the sun.(B)

Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
    and also madness and folly.(C)
What more can the king’s successor do
    than what has already been done?(D)

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