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)! [Luke 12:19, 20.]
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–concubines very many. [I Kings 9:28; 10:10, 14, 21.]
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.