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 Ecclesiastes, the son of David, the king of Jerusalem.
2 I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
Ecclesiastes said: Vanity of vanities! Vanity of vanities, and 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 more does a man have from all his labor, as he labors under the sun?
4 [Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
A generation passes away, and a generation arrives. But the earth stands forever.
5 [Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
The sun rises and sets; it returns to its place, and from there, being born again,
6 The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
it circles through the south, and arcs toward the north. The spirit continues on, illuminating everything in its circuit, and turning again in its cycle.
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 rivers enter into the sea, and the sea does not overflow. To the place from which the rivers go out, they return, so that they may flow 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.
Such things are difficult; man is not able to explain them with words. The eye is not satisfied by seeing, nor is the ear fulfilled by 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 it that has existed? The same shall exist in the future. What is it that has been done? The same shall continue to be done.
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 nothing new under the sun. Neither is anyone able to say: “Behold, this is new!” For it has already been brought forth 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 no remembrance of the former things. Indeed, neither shall there be any record of past things in the future, for those who will exist at the very end.
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
I, Ecclesiastes, was king of Israel at 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 was determined in my mind to seek and to investigate wisely, concerning all that is done under the sun. God has given this very difficult task to the sons of men, so that they may be occupied 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 that is done under the sun, and behold: all is emptiness and an affliction of the spirit.
15 [Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
The perverse are unwilling to be corrected, and the number of the foolish is boundless.
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 have spoken in my heart, saying: “Behold, I have achieved greatness, and I have surpassed all the wise who were before me in Jerusalem.” And my mind has contemplated many things wisely, and I have learned.
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 have dedicated my heart, so that I may know prudence and doctrine, and also error and foolishness. Yet I recognize that, in these things also, there is hardship, and affliction of the spirit.
18 The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
Because of this, with much wisdom there is also much anger. And whoever adds knowledge, also adds hardship.
