Ecclesiastes 1

Everything Is Meaningless

1 These are the words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 “Everything meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

3 What does a man really get for all his hard work under the sun,

4 Generations come and go, but the earth stays the same.

5 The sun rises, the sun sets, then hurries back to rise again.

6 The wind blows south, then turns north, round and round it goes.

7 All rivers flow to the sea, but the sea never fills up; they keep flowing back to where they started.

8 Everything is exhausting, no one can say enough, see enough, or hear enough.

9 What has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Can anyone point to something and say, “This brand new”, Nah, it has been around forever.

11 People forget what came before, and those yet to come will be forgotten too.

The Teacher’s Search for Wisdom

12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 I dedicated myself to study and explore everything done under heaven. What a heavy load God laid on mankind.

14 I have seen all the things done under the sun, they are all meaningless, like chasing the wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be counted.

16 I said to myself, “I have gained more wisdom than anyone before me in Jerusalem,” yet it only brought more grief.

17 I studied wisdom, madness, and foolishness, but it is all chasing the wind.

18 The more wisdom you get, the more pain you feel; the more you know, the more you hurt.