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words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Utter futility,”
says the Teacher,
“Utter futility!
Everything is futile.”
3 What does a man gain from all his labour
which he toils at under the sun?
4 One generation passes away,
and another generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and it hurries back to where its rises.
6 The wind blows to the south,
and turns around to the north;
round and round it goes,
and on its circuits the wind returns again.
7 All the streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never filled.
To the place from where the streams flow,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye is never satiated with seeing,
nor the ear its fill with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which it may be said,
“Look, this is something new”?
It has already been here from long ago,
from long before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of people
who have come before us;
and those who come after us
will not be remembered.
12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied myself to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable business God has given people to keep them occupied. 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are futile, a chasing after the wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.
16 I said to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom above all who have come before me in Jerusalem; and my mind has experienced great wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, and madness and folly; but I learned that this also is just a chasing after the wind.
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more the knowledge, the greater the grief.