Ecclesiastes 1

Chapter 1

The Futility of All Endeavor

¹The words of the ^aPreacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

²“^1aVanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,

“Vanity of vanities! All is ²vanity.”

^3aWhat advantage does man have in all his work

Which he does under the sun?

⁴A generation goes and a generation comes,

But the ^aearth ¹remains forever.

⁵Also, ^athe sun rises and the sun sets;

And ¹hastening to its place it rises there again.

^61aBlowing toward the south,

Then turning toward the north,

The wind continues ²swirling along;

And on its circular courses the wind returns.

⁷All the rivers ¹flow into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full.

To the place where the rivers flow,

There they flow again.

⁸All things are wearisome;

Man is not able to tell it.

^aThe eye is not satisfied with seeing,

Nor is the ear filled with hearing.

^9aThat which has been is that which will be,

And that which has been done is that which will be done.

So there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰Is there anything of which one might say,

“See this, it is new”?

Already it has existed for ages

Which were before us.

¹¹There is ^ano remembrance of ¹earlier things;

And also of the ²later things which will occur,

There will be for them no remembrance

Among those who will come later still.

The Futility of Wisdom

¹²I, the ^aPreacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

¹³And I ^aset my ¹mind to seek and ^bexplore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is ²a grievous ^ctask which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

¹⁴I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is ^1avanity and striving after wind.

¹⁵What is ^acrooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶I ¹said to myself, “Behold, I have magnified and increased ^awisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my ²mind has observed ³a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”

¹⁷And I ^aset my ¹mind to know wisdom and to ^bknow madness and folly; I realized that this also is ^cstriving after wind.

¹⁸Because ^ain much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.