12Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done?


In Context

9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done?

13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.

14 The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.

Ecclesiastes 2:12 in Other Translations

The King James Version of the Holy Bible

2:12And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what [can] the man [do] that cometh after the king? [even] that which hath been already done.

The Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible

2:12I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I, that he can follow the King his maker?)

The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible

2:12And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been done long ago.

The Darby Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

2:12And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly; for what shall the man do that cometh after the king? that which hath already been done.

The English Revised Version of the Holy Bible

2:12And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly; for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.

The Webster Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

2:12And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.

The World English Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

2:12I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king's successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.

The Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible

2:12And I turned to see wisdom, and madness, and folly, but what is the man who cometh after the king? that which is already — they have done it!

The American King James Version of the Holy Bible

2:12And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that comes after the king? even that which has been already done.