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Ecclesiastes / Experimenting with Pleasure and Achievement
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Experimenting with Pleasure and Achievement

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

2
Chapter 2
1 I said in my heart, "Come now, let me test myself with joy and see good—and behold, it is vanity." 2 To laughter I said, "Madness!" And to joy, "What—this did!" 3 I tested in my heart to draw my flesh with wine, and my heart was guiding in wisdom, to grasp folly, until I see what good for the sons of the man which they will do under the heavens, number of days of their life. 4 I made great my divine works/creation; I built for myself houses, I planted for myself vineyards. 5 I made for myself gardens and paradises, and I planted in them every fruit tree. 6 I made for myself pools of water to irrigate from them a grove of growing trees. 7 I acquired servants and maidservants/concubines, and there were sons of the house to Leah; also there was property/livestock, oxen, and much flock to Leah from all that were before the face of God/Moses, the theophanic presence in Zion/Jerusalem. 8 I gathered for myself also silver and gold and the treasure of kings and the provinces. I made for myself chiefs and Sarahs and the delight of the sons of Adam, field and fields. 9 And I grew great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; moreover, my wisdom stood by me. 10 And whatever my eyes asked, I did not withhold from them; I did not restrain my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my toil, and this was my portion from all my toil. 11 And I turned—I, to all my works that my hands had made and to the toil in which I had toiled to make them—and behold, all is vapor and a chasing after the wind, and there is no advantage under the sun.