1:1  The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

1:2  "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."

1:3  What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?

1:4  Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

1:5  The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.

1:6  The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.

1:7  All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

1:8  All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.

1:9  What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

1:10  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.

1:11  There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.

1:12  I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

1:13  I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!

1:14  I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

1:15  What is twisted cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.

1:16  I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge."

1:17  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.

1:18  For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.