UST ECC Chapter 2

◄ ECC 2 ► ║ ═ ©

2 Then I said to myself, “Let me experiment. I will try to make myself as happy and satisfied as possible by doing everything that I enjoy. This will enable me to discover whether doing what I enjoy provides me with lasting contentment.” Now pay attention! I concluded that even the joy and satisfaction I experienced from these pleasures were as temporary as the fading mist of my breath. 2 My introspection concluded that giddy laughter is the behavior of crazy people. Likewise, I deduced that merely pursuing what I enjoyed did me no good. 3 So, I thought deeply about the effect that indulging myself with wine or letting myself behave stupidly might have on me. All the while, I remained sober and alert. I thought about this up to the point that I could discern through my experiences the best use of humanity’s short lives on this earth.

4 So, I did as many memorable and impressive things as I could. I ordered slaves to build palaces for my leisure and to till and plant vineyards to produce fruit and wine for my pleasure. 5 I commissioned royal groves of fruit trees in my honor and manicured plants with flowing streams. Into those groves, I ordered that slaves should plant many kinds of fruit-bearing trees. 6 Furthermore, I ordered the construction of irrigation pools and canals that provided water for entire forests of lush growth to honor me. 7 I purchased male and female slaves, and they bore children who were also my slaves in my palace. I also owned more livestock of herd and flock animals than any other previous king in Jerusalem’s history before me. 8 Moreover, I accumulated immense amounts of silver and gold that I obtained from the tributary gifts of kings and the rulers of foreign territories. I owned slaves, both men and women, who sang for me, and I married wives and concubines, who provided me with sexual pleasure.
9 After all my efforts, I had attained more honor, power, and wealth than any king who had ever reigned before me in Jerusalem. (Yet, I continued to think soberly so that I could evaluate all of my work properly.) 10 In all my efforts, I allowed myself to indulge in every desire that I had. Whatever I wanted, I permitted myself to enjoy it. I did this because my difficult projects made part of me happy, and that experience felt like a reward for all my hard work. 11 But then I stopped to think about everything I had accomplished, and all the difficult, stressful work that I had done to accomplish it all. Pay attention! I concluded that both my great effort and everything I achieved were as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. Once again, my labors had been as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind. Nothing I did provided me with any sense of satisfaction or joy that made the difficulty of life worthwhile.
12 This led me to start thinking about the potential benefits of being wise, alongside those of being crazy or stupid. I did this because, being king, I had more opportunity to investigate these issues successfully than any other human being. 13 And then I recognized that being wise is far more helpful in life than being stupid, just like it is easier to live well when one has a source of light by which to see than when there is only darkness. 14 It is like people say:

A wise person is able to live well and succeed,

just like someone who walks about in the daylight can see where they are going.

A foolish person, however, endangers themselves with their misinformed decisions,

just like someone who walks about in the dark of night cannot see where they are going.

15 This made me say to myself, “I am going to die just as inevitably as stupid people! In this way, all my hard work to become an exceedingly wise person, so that I might live and think well, appears to have made no difference! What was the point?” I reminded myself that even my attempts to become wise and live a longer and more fulfilled life were as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. 16 After all, no one remembers anyone who dies, whether they lived wisely or stupidly, for very long. After a while, people will forget about both of them. How sad! No matter whether we live wisely or we act like an idiot, everyone will eventually forget about us!
17 Because the job of being a human in this life includes enduring these realities that seemed to me to be burdensome and lamentable, I began to despise being alive. Everything seemed to be as temporary and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath, and as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind. 18 Then I began to despise all the difficult and stressful work that I had labored to do during my life, especially because, after I die, someone else will come to inherit everything that I have earned, acquired, or accomplished with my life. 19 And no one can possibly predict whether my successor will be a wise or a stupid person. Either way, even if he is stupid, he will have the ability to enjoy all the things that I labored so hard and so wisely for in my life to obtain and accomplish. Regardless, even his enjoyment of the outcomes of my hard work will be as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath.
20 As I thought further about all my life's work, I began to feel hopeless and depressed. 21 Partly, I felt this way because it’s possible that someone might labor at his work wisely and expertly, even skillfully, for his entire life. But when he dies, his successor will inherit everything, even though the successor did not do any of the hard work that produced his inheritance! Yet, even these painful realities are as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. 22 After all, the emotionally and physically difficult labor that people do throughout their lives does not seem to produce anything that is both good and enduring for them. 23 This is because every day of one's life only seems to cause one pain. Furthermore, the work people do during their lives only produces frustrating grief. It is so grievous that, when they ought to be asleep at night, people's minds are so restless and anxious that they cannot rest. Yet, even so, all of this is as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath.
24 So, this is what I have concluded: The best way that people can live is simply to enjoy whatever they have to eat and drink and to allow themselves to find something enjoyable about their work. I have personally experienced that this kind of present-minded joy only comes when God gives it to someone. 25 After all, there is not a single human being who can enjoy the things he has if God does not first give those things to him. 26 God does this by making the people of whom he approves wise, insightfully intelligent, and happy. Conversely, God has decided that whoever disobeys him will work hard only so that they gain wealth that God will take away and give to those of whom he, God, approves. Yet, in truth, even their wealth and hard work are as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath, and as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind.

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