12 Next, I considered wisdom, as well as delusion and folly. What can anyone do who will come after the king that has not already been done?
13 I realized that wisdom has an advantage over folly, just as light has an advantage over darkness.
14 The wise man can see where he is walking, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that both of them suffer the same fate.
15 So I said to myself, “If I also suffer the same fate as the fool, what advantage is my great wisdom?” So I said to myself, “This also is vanity!”
16 Certainly no one will remember the wise man or the fool in future generations. When future days come, both will have been forgotten already. How is it that the wise man dies the same as the fool?
17 So I hated life because the work done under the sun is grievous to me. For everything is vanity and chasing wind!
18 So I hated all my toil with which I have toiled under the sun, for I must leave it behind to someone who will be after me.