Scripture · Old Testament
Ecclesiastes 2:12
Ecclesiastes 2:12 is verse 12 of Ecclesiastes chapter 2, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.
Berean Standard Bible
Then I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been accomplished?
King James Version
And 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.
World English Bible
I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly; for what can the king’s successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.
Read in context
Ecclesiastes 2:10–14 · Berean Standard Bible
10 Anything my eyes desired, I did not deny myself. I refused my heart no pleasure. For my heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
12 Then I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been accomplished?
13 And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:
14 The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.
Read all of Ecclesiastes 2Hebrew words
Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Study Ecclesiastes 2:12
Cross-references
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.
Ecclesiastes 1:17So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.
Ecclesiastes 7:25I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness.