- The words of the Teacher, son of David,
king in Jerusalem:
- "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says
the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
- What does man gain from all his labor at
which he toils under the sun ?
- Generations come and generations go, but
the earth remains forever.
- The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries
back to where it rises.
- The wind blows to the south and turns to
the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
- All streams flow into the sea, yet the
sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return
again.
- All things are wearisome, more than one
can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
- What has been will be again, what has been
done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
- Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
- There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
- I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in
Jerusalem.
- I devoted myself to study and to explore
by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid
on men !
- I have seen all the things that are done
under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
- What is twisted cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.
- I thought to myself, "Look, I have
grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem
before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge."
- Then I applied myself to the understanding
of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too,
is a chasing after the wind.
- For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.
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