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 Kohelet, 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,” says Kohelet; “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 does man gain from all his labour in which he labours under the sun?
4 [Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever.
5 [Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises.
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 goes towards the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses.
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 where the rivers flow, there they 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.
All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. 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 has been is that which shall be, and that which has been 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 a thing of which it may be said, “Behold, this is new”? It has been long ago, 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 memory of the former; neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come, amongst those that shall come after.
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
I, Kohelet, 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.
I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
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 chasing 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 can’t be made straight; and that which is lacking can’t be counted.
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 said to myself, “Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has 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.
I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing 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 grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
