Ecclesiastes 2:15-17
The Message
15-16 When I realized that my fate’s the same as the fool’s, I had to ask myself, “So why bother being wise?” It’s all smoke, nothing but smoke. The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they’re both forgotten. Yes, both the smart and the stupid die, and that’s it.
17 I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is a bad business. It’s smoke—and spitting into the wind.
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Ecclesiastes 2:15-17
New International Version
15 Then I said to myself,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”(A)
I said to myself,
“This too is meaningless.”
16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;(B)
the days have already come when both have been forgotten.(C)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!(D)
Toil Is Meaningless
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.(E)
Ecclesiastes 2:15-17
King James Version
15 Then 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.
16 For 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.
17 Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Read full chapterCopyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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