Ecclesiastes 1
1 [I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
THE WORDS OF the Koheleth, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
Vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
3 (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]
What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun?
4 [Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; and the earth abideth for ever.
5 [Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he ariseth.
6 The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it turneth about continually in its circuit, and the wind returneth again to its circuits.
7 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.
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again.
8 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.
All things toil to weariness; man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 [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].
That which hath been is that which shall be, and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
Is there a thing whereof it is said: 'See, this is new'? — it hath been already, in the ages which were before us.
11 [People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
There is no remembrance of them of former times; neither shall there be any remembrance of them of latter times that are to come, among those that shall come after.
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
I Koheleth have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 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.
And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven; it is a sore task that God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith.
14 It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
15 [Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
16 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!”
I spoke with my own heart, saying: 'Lo, I have gotten great wisdom, more also than all that were before me over Jerusalem'; yea, my heart hath had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
17 [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.
And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly — I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.
18 The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
For in much wisdom is much vexation; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
