Ecclesiastes 1–2

Nothing Has Any Meaning

1These are the words of the Teacher. He was the son of David. He was also king in Jerusalem.

²“Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Everything is completely meaningless!

Nothing has any meaning.”

³What does a man get for all of his work?

Why does he 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 men of long ago.

Even those who haven’t been born yet

won’t be remembered

by those who will be born after them.

Wisdom Doesn’t Have Any Meaning

¹²I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³I spent all of my time studying. 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 men!

¹⁴I’ve seen what is done on this earth. It doesn’t have any meaning. It’s like chasing the wind.

¹⁵People can’t straighten things that are twisted.

They can’t count things that don’t even exist.

¹⁶I said to myself, “Look, my wisdom has really been growing. In fact, I’m now 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 that’s also like chasing the wind.

¹⁸A lot of human wisdom leads to a lot of sorrow.

More knowledge only brings more sadness.

Pleasure Doesn’t Have Any Meaning

2I said to myself, “Come on. I’ll put pleasure to the test. I want to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.

²“Laughter is foolish,” I said. “And what can pleasure do for me?” ³I tried cheering myself up by drinking wine. I even tried living in a foolish way. But wisdom was still guiding my mind. I wanted to see what was really important for men to do on earth during the few days of their lives.

⁴So I started some large projects. I built houses for myself. I planted vineyards. ⁵I made gardens and parks. I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶I made lakes to water groves of healthy trees.

⁷I bought male and female slaves. And I had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem ever had before. ⁸I stored up silver and gold for myself. I gathered up the treasures of kings and their kingdoms. I got some male and female singers. I also got many women for myself. Women delight the hearts of men.

⁹I became far more important than anyone in Jerusalem had ever been before. And in spite of everything, I didn’t lose my wisdom.

¹⁰I gave myself everything my eyes wanted.

There wasn’t any pleasure that I refused to give myself.

I took delight in everything I did.

And that was what I got for all of my work.

¹¹But then I looked over everything my hands had done.

I saw what I had worked so hard to get.

And nothing had any meaning.

It was like chasing the wind.

Nothing was gained on this earth.

Wisdom and Foolish Pleasure Don’t Have Any Meaning

¹²I decided to think about wisdom.

I also thought about foolish pleasure.

What more can a new king do?

Can he do anything more than others have already done?

¹³I saw that wisdom is better than foolishness,

just as light is better than darkness.

¹⁴The eyes of a wise man see things clearly.

A person who is foolish lives in darkness.

But I finally realized that death catches up

with both of them.

¹⁵Then I thought,

“What happens to a foolish person will catch up with me too.

So what do I gain by being wise?”

I said to myself,

“That doesn’t have any meaning either.”

¹⁶Like a foolish person, a wise man won’t be remembered very long.

In days to come, both of them will be forgotten.

Like a person who is foolish,

a wise man must die too!

Work Doesn’t Have Any Meaning

¹⁷So I hated life. That’s because the work that is done on this earth made me sad. None of it has any meaning. It’s like chasing the wind.

¹⁸I hated everything I had worked for on earth. I’ll have to leave all of it to someone who lives after me. ¹⁹And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Either way, he’ll take over everything on earth I’ve worked so hard for. That doesn’t have any meaning either.

²⁰So I began to lose hope because of all of my hard work on this earth. ²¹A man might use wisdom, knowledge and skill to do his work. But then he has to leave everything he owns to someone who hasn’t worked for it. That doesn’t have any meaning either. In fact, it isn’t fair.

²²What does a man get for all of his hard work on earth? What does he get for all of his worries? ²³As long as he lives, his work is nothing but pain and sorrow. Even at night his mind can’t rest. That doesn’t have any meaning either.

²⁴A man can’t do anything better than eat and drink and be satisfied with his work. I’m finally seeing that those things also come from the hand of God. ²⁵Without his help, who can eat or find pleasure?

²⁶God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness to a man who pleases him. But to a sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth. Then the sinner must hand it over to the one who pleases God. That doesn’t have any meaning either. It’s like chasing the wind.