Ecclesiastes 1
1 The words of Koheleth, the son of David, the 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, saith Koheleth, 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 profit hath a man of all his toil which he toil-eth 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 passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth endureth for ever.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 The sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down, and striving to reach his place he riseth again there.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Going toward the south, and turning round toward the north, the wind moveth round about continually; and around its circles doth the wind return again.
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 never full: unto the place whither the rivers go, thither will they continue to go.
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 weary themselves [constantly]; man can not utter them: the eye is never 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 hath been, is the same which will be; and that which hath been done, is the same which will be done; and there is nothing new 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 If there be any thing whereof it is said, See, this is new: It hath already been in olden times 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 [Only] there is no recollection of former [generations]; and also of the later ones, that are to be—of these [likewise] there will be no recollection with those that will be still later.
[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 Koheleth was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 And I directed my heart to inquire and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: this is an evil employment which God hath given to the sons of man to busy themselves therewith.
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 saw all the deeds that are done under the sun: and, behold, all is vanity and a torture of the spirit.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is defective cannot be numbered.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 I spoke with my own heart, saying, Lo, I have truly obtained greater and more wisdom than all those who have been before me over Jerusalem: yea, my heart had seen much 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 And I directed my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly; [but] I have perceived that this also is a torture of the spirit.
[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 where there is much wisdom there is much vexation: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth pain.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
