-
Everything Is Meaningless
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
-
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
-
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
-
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
-
Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
-
No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
-
Wisdom Is Meaningless
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
-
I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!
-
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
-
What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
-
I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.”
-
Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
-
Pleasures Are Meaningless
I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.
-
“Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?”
-
I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
-
I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
-
I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
-
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
-
Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless
Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?
-
I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.
-
Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.”
-
For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die!
-
Toil Is Meaningless
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
-
I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
-
And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.
