Prædikeren 1
1 Ord af Prædikeren, Davids Søn, Konge i Jerusalem.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Endeløs Tomhed, sagde Prædikeren, endeløs Tomhed, alt er Tomhed!
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Hvad Vinding har Mennesket af al den Flid, han gør sig under Solen?
(What do people gain from all the work that they do here on the earth?/It seems that people gain no lasting benefit from all the work that they do here on the earth.) [RHQ]
4 Slægt gaar, og Slægt kommer, men Jorden staar til evig Tid.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Sol staar op, og Sol gaar ned og haster igen til sin Opgangs Sted.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Vinden gaar mod Syd og drejer mod Nord, den drejer atter og atter og vender tilbage til samme Kredsløb.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Alle Bække løber i Havet, men Havet bliver ikke fuldt; det Sted, til hvilket Bækkene løber, did bliver de ved at løbe.
All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is never full. The water returns [to the sky], and [when it rains], the water returns to the rivers, and it flows again to the sea.
8 Alting slider sig træt; Mand hører ikke op med at tale, Øjet bliver ikke mæt af at se, Øret ej fuldt af at høre.
Everything is boring, [with the result that] we do not even want to talk about it. We [SYN] see things, but we always want to see more. We [SYN] hear things, but we always want to hear more.
9 Det, der kommer, er det, der var, det, der sker, er det, der skete; der er slet intet nyt under Solen.
[Everything continues to be the same as it has always been]; things that happen have happened previously, and they will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing [really] new in this world [MTY].
10 Kommer der noget, om hvilket man siger: »Se, her er da noget nyt!« det har dog for længst været til i Tiderne forud for os.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Ej mindes de svundne Slægter, og de ny, som kommer engang, skal ej heller mindes af dem, som kommer senere hen.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Jeg, Prædikeren, var Konge over Israel i Jerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Jeg vendte min Hu til at ransage og med Visdom udgranske alt, hvad der sker under Himmelen; det er et ondt Slid, som Gud har givet Menneskens Børn at slide med.
By being wise, I concentrated on understanding everything that was being done on the earth [MTY]. [But I found out that] God causes [all of] us to experience things that cause us to be unhappy/miserable.
14 Jeg saa alt, hvad der sker under Solen, og se, det er alt sammen Tomhed og Jag efter Vind.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Kroget kan ej blive lige, og halvt kan ej blive helt.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Jeg tænkte ved mig selv: »Se, jeg har vundet større og rigere Visdom end alle de, der før mig var over Jerusalem, og mit Hjerte har skuet Visdom og Kundskab i Fylde.«
I said to myself, “[Hey], I am wiser than any of the kings that ruled in Jerusalem before I [became the king]. I am wiser and I know more than any of them!”
17 Jeg vendte min Hu til at fatte, hvad der er Visdom og Kundskab, og hvad der er Daarskab og Taabelighed; jeg skønnede, at ogsaa det er Jag efter Vind.
[So] I determined to learn [more] about being wise and to learn about knowing about many things, and [also] to learn about [doing things that are] very foolish [DOU]. [But] I found out that trying to understand those things was also [useless, like] chasing the wind.
18 Thi megen Visdom megen Græmmelse, øget Kundskab øget Smerte.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
