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Everything Is Meaningless
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
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“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
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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.
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A Time for Everything
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
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a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
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He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
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I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
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I said to myself, “God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.”
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Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.
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Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
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A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool.
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Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.
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Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.
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This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?
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Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied.
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The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?
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It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.
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Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you—
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Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
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For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.
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All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.
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This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.
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So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.
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The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
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Even as fools walk along the road, they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are.
