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 preacher, the son of David, 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.
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, 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 a man of all his labor, which he taketh 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: but 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 riseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
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 towards the south, and turneth about to the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according 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; to the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return 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 [are] full of labor; 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].
The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no 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.
Is there [any] thing of which it may be said, See, this [is] new? it hath been already of old time, which was 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 former [things]; neither shall there be [any] remembrance of [things] that are to come with [those] that shall come after.
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
I the preacher was 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 gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all [things] that are done under heaven: this grievous labor hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised with 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 are done under the sun; and behold, all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.
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 communed with my own heart, saying, Lo, I have come to great estate, and have gained more wisdom than all [they] that have been before me in Jerusalem: and my heart 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 gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
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 grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
