Scriptures

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Ecclesiastes 1
¹⁶ I said to myself, "Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge."
¹⁷ And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.
¹⁸ Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.
Ecclesiastes 2
¹ I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself." And behold, it too was futility.
² I said of laughter, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"
³ I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.
⁴ I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself;
⁵ I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees;
⁶ I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.
⁷ I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.
⁸ Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men-many concubines.