Ecclesiastes 1:1-16

¹Here are the words of the Teacher, the king of Jerusalem, David's son.

²“Everything passes—it's so temporary! It's all so hard to understand!” says the Teacher.

³What benefit do you get for slaving away in this life?

⁴People come, and people go, but the earth lasts forever!

⁵The sun comes up, and the sun goes down, and then rushes to its place to rise again.

⁶The wind blows south, and then turns to the north. Round and round it spins, finally coming full circle.

⁷Streams all flow into the sea, but the sea never becomes full. The streams return to the place from where they came.

⁸Everything just keeps on going. You can't say all there is to say. You can't see all there is to see. You can't hear all there is to hear.

⁹Everything that was will continue to be; everything that has been done will be done again. Nothing new ever happens here.

¹⁰There's nothing anyone can point to and say, “Look! Here's something new.” In fact it's been around for ages, long before our time.

¹¹The problem is we don't remember people from the past, and people in the future won't remember those who came before them.

¹²I am the Teacher, and I was king over Israel, reigning from Jerusalem.

¹³I decided to focus my mind to explore, using wisdom, everything that happens here on earth. This is a tough assignment that God has given people to keep them busy!

¹⁴I examined everything people do here on earth, and discovered that it's all so temporary—trying to understand it is like trying to pin down the wind!

¹⁵You can't straighten what is twisted, and you can't count what isn't there.

¹⁶I thought to myself, “I've become very wise, wiser than all the kings of Jerusalem before me. My mind has gained a great deal of wisdom and knowledge.”