Ecclesiastes 1:3–15

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.