1These are the words of the Teacher, David’s son, who was king in Jerusalem:
2“Meaningless! Completely meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”
3What do people gain from all their hard work under the sun?
4One generation passes away, and another generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
5The sun rises and the sun sets; then it hurries back to the place where it rises again.
6The wind blows to the south and then turns to the north. It swirls around constantly, returning again and again to its original path.
7All rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. The rivers continue to flow to the place where they began.
8Everything is so tiresome that no one can fully describe it. Our eyes are never satisfied with what they see, and our ears are never full from what they hear.
9What has happened before will happen 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”? It has already existed in the ages before us.
11The people who lived long ago are not remembered, and the people who will live in the future will also be forgotten by those who come after them.
12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13I decided to use wisdom to study and explore everything that happens under heaven. I saw that God has given humanity a difficult task to keep them busy.
14I have seen everything done on Earth, and I've concluded that it's all pointless, like trying to catch the wind.
15What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is missing cannot be counted.
16I thought to myself, "Look, I have gained more wisdom than anyone before me in Jerusalem. My mind has truly experienced a lot of wisdom and knowledge."
17I made up my mind to understand wisdom, and also to understand foolishness and madness. I realized that this, too, was like chasing after the wind.
18Because with a lot of wisdom comes a lot of sorrow, and increasing your knowledge only increases your sadness.