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.