Study Desk

Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.

As the beating of cream yields butter and striking the nose causes bleeding, so stirring up anger causes quarrels.

So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.

So I said, "Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?"

So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me.

But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

So I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness (for who can do this better than I, the king?).

Both will die. So I said to myself, "Since I will end up the same as the fool, what's the value of all my wisdom? This is all so meaningless!"

So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world.

So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety?

So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.

For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!

So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after we die.

So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living.

This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, "Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?" It is all so meaningless and depressing.

Endless crowds stand around him, but then another generation grows up and rejects him, too. So it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.

Don't make rash promises, and don't be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.