Parallel Bible results for "ecclesiastes 2:12-22"

Ecclesiastes 2:12-22

RSV

NIV

12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what he has already done.
12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?
13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.
14 The wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness; and yet I perceived that one fate comes to all of them.
14 The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.
15 Then I said to myself, "What befalls the fool will befall me also; why then have I been so very wise?" And I said to myself that this also is vanity.
15 Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.”
16 For of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise man dies just like the fool!
16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die!
17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
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.
18 I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me;
18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
19 and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.
20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,
20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
21 because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
22 What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?
22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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