Books of The Bible / Book of Ecclesiastes
1 Composition of Qoheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile!
3 What profit can we show for all our toil, toiling under the sun?
4 A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever.
5 The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises.
6 Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; then back to its circling goes the wind.
7 Into the sea go all the rivers, and yet the sea is never filled, and still to their goal the rivers go.
8 All things are wearisome. No one can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing.
9 What was, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun!
10 Take anything which people acclaim as being new: it existed in the centuries preceding us.
11 No memory remains of the past, and so it will be for the centuries to come — they will not be remembered by their successors.
12 I, Qoheleth, have reigned over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 Wisely I have applied myself to investigation and exploration of everything that happens under heaven. What a wearisome task God has given humanity to keep us busy!
14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun: how futile it all is, mere chasing after the wind!
15 What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is not there cannot be counted.
16 I thought to myself: I have acquired a greater stock of wisdom than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I myself have mastered every kind of wisdom and science.
17 I have applied myself to understanding philosophy and science, stupidity and folly, and I now realise that all this too is chasing after the wind.
18 Much wisdom, much grief; the more knowledge, the more sorrow.