Ecclesiastes 1:6-17

⁶The wind blows south and circles around to the north, always going around along its pathway and coming back again.

⁷All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea is never full. To the place where the rivers go, there they go again.

⁸Everything becomes wearisome, and no one can explain it. The eye is not satisfied by what it sees, nor is the ear fulfilled by what it hears.

⁹Whatever has been is what will be, and whatever has been done is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰Is there anything about which it may be said, 'Look, this is new'? Whatever exists has already existed for a long time, during ages which came long before us.

¹¹No one seems to remember the things that happened in ancient times, and the things that happened much later and that will happen in the future will not likely be remembered either.”

¹²I am the Teacher, and I have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

¹³I applied my mind to study and to search out by wisdom everything that is done under heaven. That search is a burdensome task that God has given to the children of mankind to be busy with.

¹⁴I have seen all the deeds that are done under the sun, and look, they all amount to vapor and chasing the wind.

¹⁵The twisted cannot be straightened! The missing cannot be counted!

¹⁶I have spoken to my heart saying, “Look, I have acquired greater wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My mind has seen great wisdom and knowledge.”

¹⁷So I applied my heart to know wisdom and also madness and folly. I came to understand that this also was an attempt to shepherd the wind.