Ecclesiastes 1:3–15

³What do people gain from all their labors

at which they toil under the sun?^d

⁴Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.^e

⁵The sun rises and the sun sets,

and hurries back to where it rises.^f

⁶The wind blows to the south

and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

ever returning on its course.

⁷All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.^g

⁸All things are wearisome,

more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing,^h

nor the ear its fill of hearing.

⁹What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;ⁱ

there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰Is there anything of which one can say,

“Look! This is something new”?

It was here already, long ago;

it was here before our time.

¹¹No one remembers the former generations,^j

and even those yet to come

will not be remembered

by those who follow them.^k

Wisdom Is Meaningless

¹²I, the Teacher,^l was king over Israel in Jerusalem.^{m 13}I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.ⁿ What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!^{o 14}I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.^p

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be straightened;^q

what is lacking cannot be counted.