1. I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself." And behold, it too was futility.
2. I said of laughter, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"
3. I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.
4. I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself;
5. I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees;
6. I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.
7. I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.
8. Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men-many concubines.