Ecclesiastes 1
1 word preacher son: child David king in/on/with Jerusalem
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 vanity vanity to say preacher vanity vanity [the] all vanity
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 what? advantage to/for man in/on/with all trouble his which/that to toil underneath: 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 generation to go: went and generation to come (in): come and [the] land: country/planet to/for forever: enduring to stand: stand
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 and to rise [the] sun and to come (in): come [the] sun and to(wards) place his to long for to rise he/she/it there
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 to go: walk to(wards) south and to turn: turn to(wards) north to turn: surround to turn: surround to go: walk [the] spirit: breath and upon around him to return: return [the] spirit: breath
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] torrent: river to go: walk to(wards) [the] sea and [the] sea nothing he full to(wards) place which/that [the] torrent: river to go: walk there they(masc.) to return: return to/for to go: walk
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 [the] word: thing weary not be able man: anyone to/for to speak: speak not to satisfy eye to/for to see: see and not to fill ear from to hear: hear
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 what? which/that to be he/she/it which/that to be and what? (which/that to make: do *L(abh)*) he/she/it which/that to make: do and nothing all new underneath: 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 there word: thing which/that to say to see: behold! this new he/she/it already to be to/for forever: antiquity which to be from to/for face: before our
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 nothing memorial to/for first: previous and also to/for last which/that to be not to be to/for them memorial with which/that to be to/for last
[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 preacher to be king upon Israel in/on/with Jerusalem
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 and to give: put [obj] heart my to/for to seek and to/for to spy in/on/with wisdom upon all which to make: do underneath: under [the] heaven he/she/it task bad: harmful to give: put God to/for son: child [the] man to/for be occupied in/on/with him
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 to see: see [obj] all [the] deed: work which/that to make: do underneath: under [the] sun and behold [the] all vanity and longing spirit: breath
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 to pervert not be able to/for be straight and deficiency not be able to/for to count
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 to speak: speak I with heart my to/for to say I behold to magnify and to add wisdom upon all which to be to/for face: before my upon Jerusalem and heart my to see: examine to multiply 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 to give: put [emph?] heart my to/for to know wisdom and to know madness and folly to know which/that also this he/she/it striving spirit: breath
[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/on/with abundance wisdom many vexation and to add knowledge to add pain
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
