Douay Rheims Original ↷
Ecclesiastes 2 📜 📕 ↷
Futility of Pleasure
1 I said therefore in my heart: I will go, & flow in delights, and enjoy good things. And I saw that this also was vanity.📜💬📚
2 Laughter I have reputed error: and to joy I have said: Why art thou deceived in vain?📜💬📚
3 I have thought in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might transfer my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly, till I might see what should be profitable for the children of men: what is needful to be done under the sun, in the number of the days of their life.📜💬📚
4 I have magnified my works, I have built me houses, & planted vineyards,📜💬📚
5 I have made gardens, and orchards, and set them with trees of all kinds,📜💬📚
6 and I have made me ponds of waters, to water the wood of springing trees,📜💬📚
7 I have possessed men-servants and women-servants, and have had a great family: herds also, and great flocks of sheep, above all that were before me in Jerusalem:📜💬📚
8 I have heaped together to myself silver, and gold, and the substance of kings, and provinces: I made me singing men, & singing women, and the delights of the children of men: cups, and goblets to serve to pour out wines:📜💬📚
9 and I surpassed in riches all that were before me in Jerusalem: wisdom also hath persevered with me.📜💬📚
10 And all things that mine eyes desired, I have not denied to them: neither have I stayed my heart, but that it enjoyed all pleasure, & delighted it-self in these things, which I had prepared: and this I esteemed my portion, if I did use my labour.📜💬📚
11 And when I had turned myself to all the works which my hands had done, & to the labours wherein I had sweat in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and affliction of mind, & nothing to be permanent under the sun.📜💬📚
Wise and the Foolish
12 I passed further to contemplate wisdom, and errors, and folly (what is man, quoth I, that he can follow the King his Maker?)📜💬📚
13 and I saw that wisdom so much excelled folly, as light differeth from darkness.📜💬📚
14 The eyes of a wiseman are in his head: the fool walketh in darkness: and I have learned that there was one death of both.📜💬📚
15 And I said in my heart: if the fall of the fool & mine shall be one, what doth it profit me, that I have bestowed greater labour for wisdom? And speaking with my mind, I perceived that this also was vanity.📜💬📚
16 For there shall be no memory of the wise in like manner as of the fool for ever, and the times to come shall cover all things together with oblivion: the learned dieth in like manner as the unlearned.📜💬📚
17 And therefore I have been weary of my life, seeing all things under the sun to be evil, and all things vanity and affliction of spirit.📜💬📚
Futility of Work
18 Again, I detested all mine industry, wherewith I have laboured under the sun most studiously, being like to have an heir after me:📜💬📚
19 whom I know not, whether he will be a wiseman or a fool, and he shall rule in my labours, wherewith I have sweat and have been careful: and is there any thing so vain?📜💬📚
20 Wherefore I ceased, and my heart hath renounced to labour any more under the sun.📜💬📚
21 For whereas one laboureth in wisdom, and doctrine, and carefulness, he leaveth the things gotten to an idle man: and this therefore is vanity, and great evil.📜💬📚
22 For what profit shall be to a man of all his labour, and affliction of spirit, wherewith he is vexed under the sun?📜💬📚
23 All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, neither by night doth he rest in mind: and is not this vanity?📜💬📚
24 Is it not better to eat and drink, and shew unto his soul good things of his labours? & this is of the hand of God.📜💬📚
25 Who shall so devour, and flow with delights as I?📜💬📚
26 To a man good in his sight, God hath given wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given affliction, and superfluous care, to add, and to gather together, and deliver it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, & vain carefulness of the mind.📜💬📚
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