Study Desk

I accomplished great things. I built for myself houses; I planted for myself vineyards.

I made for myself gardens and parks, and I planted all sorts of fruit trees in them.

I made for myself pools of water from which to irrigate a grove of flourishing trees.

I also gathered to myself silver and gold—the royal and provincial treasuries. I acquired for myself male and female singers, as well as the delight of men, voluptuous concubines.

I neither withheld anything from my eyes that they desired, nor did I deprive any pleasure from my heart. My heart rejoiced in all my toil, for this was my reward from all my toil.

So I hated life because the work done under the sun is grievous to me. For everything is vanity and chasing wind!

So I hated all my toil with which I have toiled under the sun, for I must leave it behind to someone who will be after me.

For although a person may toil with great wisdom and skill, he must leave his reward to someone who has not toiled for it. This also is vanity and a great calamity.

For what does a person receive for all his toil and in the longing of his heart with which he toils under the sun?

There is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and find delight in his toil. For I also realized that this is from the hand of God!

For who can eat and drink, and who can enjoy life apart from him?

For to the person who is good in his eyes, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and heaping up only to give it to him who is pleasing to him. This also is vanity and chasing wind!

For everything there is an appointed time, a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.

So I realized that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy themselves during their lives.

And for anyone to eat and drink, that is, to enjoy the fruit of all his toil, this also is a gift of God.

I know everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it, for God so acts that humans might stand in awe before him.

What is—it already was, and what will be—it already is, for God will do what he has done.

So I said to myself, "God will surely judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time of judgment for every deed and every work."

For the fate of humans and the fate of the beast is the same. The death of the one is like the death of the other, for both are mortal. Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting.