Ecclesiastes 2:12
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. 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.
Ecclesiastes 2:12 is Solomon's own testimony after he turned away from joyful communion with God to seek satisfaction in sensual pleasure. Before he spoke it he had made great works, built houses, planted vineyards, gardens and orchards, gained servants, gathered silver and gold and royal treasures, provided singers and every delight, surpassed all before him in Jerusalem, and denied his eyes nothing they desired. He had already judged all that labor to be empty and troubling to the spirit, with no lasting profit under the sun.
He then turned to consider wisdom alongside madness and folly, setting them in contrast with one another. That examination belonged to wasted years in which he pursued earthly things and even set up altars to pagan gods, discovering how vain their promise of rest for the soul is. He declared that the man who comes after the king can do only what has already been done.
In this he speaks from bitter personal experience that a life seeking its highest good in earthly things is empty. In his later years, weary and thirsty from earth's failing sources, he returned to the source of life and, by inspiration, recorded the history of those wasted years as a warning for later generations. Although his people reaped harvests of evil from the seed he sowed, his life work was not entirely lost, for suffering at last accomplished its disciplining purpose in him.