EcclesiastesChapter 1
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1These are the words of the Teacher. He was the son of David and king in Jerusalem.a 2"Totally pointless!" says the Teacher. "Totally pointless! Everything is pointless!"b 3What does a person gain from all his hard work? What does he gain from all his work under the sun? 4Generations come, and generations go. But the earth lasts forever. 5The sun rises, and the sun sets. Then it hurries back to the place where it rises. 6The wind blows to the south. Then it turns to the north. Around and around it goes. It always comes back to its path. 7All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea is never full. The streams go back to the place they come from. Then they flow from there again. 8Everything makes people tired, more than anyone can say. The eye never gets enough of seeing. The ear is never filled with hearing. 9What has been before will be again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. 10Can anyone point to something and say, "Look, this is new"? No, it was already here long before our time. 11No one remembers the people who lived long ago. And people still to come will not be remembered by those who come after them. 12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13I set my mind to study and explore everything done under heaven. I used wisdom to do it. What a hard and painful job God has given people to keep them busy! 14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun. All of them are pointless. They are like chasing the wind. 15What is bent cannot be made straight. What is missing cannot be counted. 16I said to myself, "Look, I have grown great. I have become wiser than all who ruled over Jerusalem before me. My mind has seen a great deal of wisdom and knowledge." 17So I set my mind to know wisdom. I also set it to know madness and foolishness. But I learned that this too is chasing the wind. 18For with much wisdom comes much sorrow. The more knowledge grows, the more grief grows.