Ecclesiastes 1
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?
(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 One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.
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 All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
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 That which has been is that which shall be, and that which has been done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun.
[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 Is there a thing of which it may be said, “Behold, this is new”? It has been long ago, in the ages which were before us.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 There is no memory of the former; neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come, among those that shall come after.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
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 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is lacking cannot be counted.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 I said to myself, “Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”
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 I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.
[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 For in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
