Ecclesiastes 1
1
1Words of a preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, Vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity.
3What advantage [is] to man by all his labour that he laboureth at under the sun?
4A generation is going, and a generation is coming, and the earth to the age is standing.
5Also, the sun hath risen, and the sun hath gone in, and unto its place panting it is rising there.
6Going unto the south, and turning round unto the north, turning round, turning round, the wind is going, and by its circuits the wind hath returned.
7All the streams are going unto the sea, and the sea is not full; unto a place whither the streams are going, thither they are turning back to go.
8All these things are wearying; a man is not able to speak, the eye is not satisfied by seeing, nor filled is the ear from hearing.
9What [is] that which hath been? it [is] that which is, and what [is] that which hath been done? it [is] that which is done, and there is not an entirely new thing under the sun.
10There is a thing of which [one] saith: ‘See this, it [is] new!’ already it hath been in the ages that were before us!
11There is not a remembrance of former [generations]; and also of the latter that are, there is no remembrance of them with those that are at the last.
12I, a preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13And I have given my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that hath been done under the heavens. It [is] a sad travail God hath given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.
14I have seen all the works that have been done under the sun, and lo, the whole [is] vanity and vexation of spirit!
15A crooked thing [one] is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered.
16I — I spake with my heart, saying, ‘I, lo, I have magnified and added wisdom above every one who hath been before me at Jerusalem, and my heart hath seen abundantly wisdom and knowledge.
17And I give my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I have known that even this [is] vexation of spirit;
18for, in abundance of wisdom [is] abundance of sadness, and he who addeth knowledge addeth pain.’
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Ecclesiastes 1: YLT98
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Ecclesiastes 1
1
Everything Is Meaningless
1These are the words of the Teacher. He was the son of David. He was also the king in Jerusalem.
2“Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Everything is completely meaningless!
Nothing has any meaning.”
3What do people get for all their work?
Why do they work so hard on this earth?
4People come and people go.
But the earth remains forever.
5The sun rises. Then it sets.
And then it hurries back to where it rises.
6The wind blows to the south.
Then it turns to the north.
Around and around it goes.
It always returns to where it started.
7Every stream flows into the ocean.
But the ocean never gets full.
The streams return
to the place they came from.
8All things are tiresome.
They are more tiresome than anyone can say.
But our eyes never see enough of anything.
Our ears never hear enough.
9Everything that has ever been will come back again.
Everything that has ever been done will be done again.
Nothing is new on earth.
10There isn’t anything about which someone can say,
“Look! Here’s something new.”
It was already here long ago.
It was here before we were.
11No one remembers the people of long ago.
Even those who haven’t been born yet
won’t be remembered
by those who will be born after them.
Wisdom Is Meaningless
12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13I decided to study things carefully. I used my wisdom to check everything out. I looked into everything that is done on earth. What a heavy load God has put on human beings! 14I’ve seen what is done on this earth. All of it is meaningless. It’s like chasing the wind.
15People can’t straighten things that are crooked.
They can’t count things that don’t even exist.
16I said to myself, “Look, I’ve now grown wiser than anyone who ruled over Jerusalem in the past. I have a lot of wisdom and knowledge.” 17Then I used my mind to understand what it really means to be wise. And I wanted to know what foolish pleasure is all about. But I found out that it’s also like chasing the wind.
18A lot of human wisdom leads to a lot of sorrow.
More knowledge only brings more sadness.
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