2:12. I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I that he can follow the King his maker?)
2:13. And I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as much as light differeth from darkness.
2:14. The eyes of a wise man are in his head: the fool walketh in darkness: and I learned that they were to die both alike.
2:15. And I said in my heart: If the death of the fool and mine shall be one, what doth it avail me, that I have applied myself more to the study of wisdom? And speaking with my own mind, I perceived that this also was vanity.
2:16. For there shall be no remembrance of the wise no more than of the fool forever, and the times to come shall cover all things together with oblivion: the learned dieth in like manner as the unlearned.
2:17. And therefore I was weary of my life, when I saw that all things under the sun are evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit.
2:18. Again I hated all my application wherewith I had earnestly laboured under the sun, being like to have an heir after me,
2:19. Whom I know not whether he will be a wise man or a fool, and he shall have rule over all my labours with which I have laboured and been solicitous: and is there anything so vain?
2:20. Wherefore I left off and my heart renounced labouring anymore under the sun.
2:21. For when a man laboureth in wisdom, and knowledge, and carefulness, he leaveth what he hath gotten to an idle man: so this also is vanity, and a great evil.