Ecclesiastes 1

Everything Is Futile

¹ These are the words of the Teacher,^a the son of David, king in Jerusalem:

² “Futility^b of futilities,”

says the Teacher,

“futility of futilities!

Everything is futile!”

³ What does a man gain from all his labor,

at which he toils under the sun?

⁴ Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets;

it hurries back to where it rises.

⁶ The wind blows southward,

then turns northward;

round and round it swirls,

ever returning on its course.

⁷ All the rivers flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full;

to the place from which the streams come,

there again they flow.

⁸ All things are wearisome,

more than one can describe;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear content with hearing.

⁹ What has been will be again,

and what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰ Is there a case where one can say,

“Look, this is new”?

It has already existed

in the ages before us.

¹¹ There is no remembrance

of those who came before,

and those yet to come will not be remembered

by those who follow after.

With Wisdom Comes Sorrow

¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened,

and what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶ I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”

¹⁷ So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.

¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow,

and as knowledge grows, grief increases.