Ecclesiastes 1
1 [I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
Words of a preacher, 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, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities: the whole [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 advantage [is] to man by all his labor that he labors at under the sun?
4 [Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
A generation is going, and a generation is coming, and the earth is standing for all time.
5 [Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
Also, the sun has risen, and the sun has gone in, and to its place panting it is rising there.
6 The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
Going to the south, and turning around to the north, turning around, turning around, the wind is going, and by its circuits the wind has returned.
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 streams are going to the sea, and the sea is not full; to a place to where the streams are going, there they are turning back to go.
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 these things are wearying; a man is not able to speak, the eye is not satisfied by seeing, nor is the ear filled from 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].
What [is] that which has been? It [is] that which is, and what [is] that which has been done? It [is] that which is done, and there is not an entirely new thing 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.
There is a thing of which [one] says: “See this, it [is] new!” Already it has been in the ages that 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 not a remembrance of former [generations]; and also of the latter that are, there is no remembrance of them with those that are at the last.
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
I, a preacher, 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 have given my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that has been done under the heavens. It [is] a sad travail God has given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.
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 have been done under the sun, and behold, the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit!
15 [Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
A crooked thing [one] is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to 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 heart, saying, “I, behold, have magnified and added wisdom above everyone who has been before me at Jerusalem, and my heart has seen wisdom and knowledge abundantly.
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 give my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I have known that even this [is] distress of spirit;
18 The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
for in abundance of wisdom [is] abundance of sadness, and he who adds knowledge adds pain.”
