Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) 1

¹ The words of Qoheleth[*a] son of David, king in Jerusalem.

² Vanity of vanities, Qoheleth says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!

³ For all his toil, his toil under the sun, what does man gain by it?

⁴ A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever.

⁵ The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises.

⁶ Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; back then to its circling goes the wind.

⁷ Into the sea all the rivers go, and yet the sea is never filled, and still to their goal the rivers go.

⁸ All things are wearisome. No man can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing.

⁹ What was will be again; what has been done will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰ Take anything of which it may be said, ‘Look now, this is new’. Already, long before our time, it existed.

¹¹ Only no memory remains of earlier times, just as in times to come next year itself will not be remembered.

¹² I, Qoheleth, have reigned in Jerusalem over Israel.

¹³ With the help of wisdom I have been at pains to study all that is done under heaven; oh, what a weary task God has given mankind to labour at!

¹⁴ I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and what vanity it all is, what chasing of the wind!

¹⁵ What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is not there cannot be counted.

¹⁶ I thought to myself, ‘I have acquired a greater stock of wisdom than any of my predecessors in Jerusalem. I have great experience of wisdom and learning.’

¹⁷ Wisdom has been my careful study; stupidity, too, and folly. And now I have come to recognise that even this is chasing of the wind.

¹⁸ Much wisdom, much grief, the more knowledge, the more sorrow.