11 But when I turned myself toward all the works that my hands had made, and to the labors in which I had perspired to no purpose, I saw emptiness and affliction of the soul in all things, and that nothing is permanent under the sun.
12 I continued on, so as to contemplate wisdom, as well as error and foolishness. 'What is man,' I said, 'that he would be able to follow his Maker, the King?'
13 And I saw that wisdom surpasses foolishness, so much so that they differ as much as light from darkness.
14 The eyes of a wise man are in his head. A foolish man walks in darkness. Yet I learned that one would pass away like the other.
15 And I said in my heart: 'If the death of both the foolish and myself will be one, how does it benefit me, if I have given myself more thoroughly to the work of wisdom?' And as I was speaking within my own mind, I perceived that this, too, is emptiness.
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