The Vanity of Living Wisely

Ecclesiastes 2

¹² _q So I turned to consider _r wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only _s what has already been done. ¹³ Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. ¹⁴ _t The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the _u same event happens to all of them. ¹⁵ Then I said in my heart, _v "What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?" And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. ¹⁶ For of the wise as of the fool there is _w no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. _x How the wise dies just like the fool! ¹⁷ So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for _o all is vanity and a striving after wind.

1. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 7:25
   I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.
   
2. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 1:17
   And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
   
3. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 1:9 - 10
   What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
   
4. Cross References
   Proverbs 17:24
   The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
   
5. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 3:19
   For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.
   Ecclesiastes 9:2 - 3
   It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.
   Psalms 49:10
   For he sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.
   
6. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:16
   For of the wise 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 dies just like the fool!
   Ecclesiastes 6:8
   For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?
   
7. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 1:11
   There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
   Ecclesiastes 9:5
   For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
   
8. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:14
   The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.
   
9. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:11
   Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.