Ecclesiastes 2:12 - Revised Standard Version

¹² So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what he has already done.

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King James Version (Oxford) 1769

¹² 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.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹² So I turned to consider [human] wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who succeeds the king? Nothing but what has been done already.

American Standard Version (1901)

¹² 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 done long ago.

Common English Bible

¹² My reflections then turned to wisdom, madness, and folly. What can the king’s heir do but what has already been done?

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹² I continued on, so as to contemplate wisdom, as well as error and foolishness. "What is man," I said, "that he would be able to follow his Maker, the King?"

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

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

Ecclesiastes 2:12 Cross References

Ecclesiastes 1:17

And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 3:15

That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Ecclesiastes 7:25

I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness which is madness.