12. I am the Teacher. I was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13. I applied my mind to investigate and to explore by wisdom all that happens under heaven. It’s an unhappy obsession that God has given to human beings.
14. When I observed all that happens under the sun, I realized that everything is pointless, a chasing after wind.
15. What’s crooked can’t be straightened;what isn’t there can’t be counted.
16. I said to myself, Look here, I have grown much wiser than any who ruled over Jerusalem before me. My mind has absorbed great wisdom and knowledge.
17. But when I set my mind to understand wisdom, and also to understand madness and folly, I realized that this too was just wind chasing.
18. Remember:In much wisdom is much aggravation;the more knowledge, the more pain.