| |
New Living Translation |   | |
 |
| |
| | Ecc 1:1 | These are the words of the Teacher, King David's son, who ruled in Jerusalem.
| |
| | Ecc 1:2 | "Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "utterly meaningless!"
| |
| | Ecc 1:3 | What do people get for all their hard work?
| |
| | Ecc 1:4 | Generations come and go, but nothing really changes.
| |
| | Ecc 1:5 | The sun rises and sets and hurries around to rise again.
| |
| | Ecc 1:6 | The wind blows south and north, here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere.
| |
| | Ecc 1:7 | The rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows again to the sea.
| |
| | Ecc 1:8 | Everything is so weary and tiresome! No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
| |
| | Ecc 1:9 | History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
| |
| | Ecc 1:10 | What can you point to that is new? How do you know it didn't already exist long ago?
| |
| | Ecc 1:11 | We don't remember what happened in those former times. And in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
| |
| | Ecc 1:12 | I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem.
| |
| | Ecc 1:13 | I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done in the world. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race.
| |
| | Ecc 1:14 | Everything under the sun is meaningless, like chasing the wind.
| |
| | Ecc 1:15 | What is wrong cannot be righted. What is missing cannot be recovered.
| |
| | Ecc 1:16 | I said to myself, "Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them."
| |
| | Ecc 1:17 | So I worked hard to distinguish wisdom from foolishness. But now I realize that even this was like chasing the wind.
| |
| | Ecc 1:18 | For the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.
| |
