Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 NIV

Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 NIV [1] The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: [2] “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” [3] What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? [4] Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. [5] The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. [6] The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. [7] All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. [8] All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. [9] What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. [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. [11] No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. [12] I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. [13] I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! [14] I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. [15] What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted. [16] I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” [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. [18] For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

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