1 I SAID in my mind, Come now, I will prove you with mirth and test you with pleasure; so have a good time [enjoy pleasure]. But this also was vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)! 2 I said of laughter, It is mad, and of pleasure, What does it accomplish? 3 I searched in my mind how to cheer my body with wine--yet at the same time having my mind hold its course and guide me with [human] wisdom--and how to lay hold of folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. 4 I made great works; I built myself houses, I planted vineyards. 5 I made for myself gardens and orchards and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made for myself pools of water from which to water the forest and make the trees bud. 7 I bought menservants and maidservants and had servants born in my house. Also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got for myself men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men-- 1 concubines very many.
9 So I became great and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me and stood by me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion and reward for all my toil. 11 Then I looked on all that my hands had done and the labor I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it, and there was no profit under the sun.