Ecclesiastes 2:14-16

Good News Translation

¹⁴The wise can see where they are going, and fools cannot.” But I also know that the same fate is waiting for us all. ¹⁵I thought to myself, “What happens to fools is going to happen to me, too. So what have I gained from being so wise?” “Nothing,” I answered, “not a thing.” ¹⁶No 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.

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Ecclesiastes 2:14-16

New International Version

¹⁴The wise have eyes in their heads,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.^(A)

¹⁵Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”^(B)
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;^(C)
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.^(D)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!^(E)

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Ecclesiastes 2:14-16

King James Version

¹⁴The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

¹⁵Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.

¹⁶For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.

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