Next, in 2:12–16, Qoheleth investigates wisdom and its converse, madness and folly (2:12a; cf. 1:17). Verse 12b is viewed by some commentators as unintelligible or displaced but may serve to anticipate 2:18–21, which also deals with the king’s successor. Verse 12b, translated literally, asks, “For what kind of person is it who will come after the king, in the matter of what has already been done?” (so Eaton, 68). Verses 12–15 contain a sequence of verbal actions that set forth Qoheleth’s epistemological process. These will be repeated, with some variations, th…