[1] When the son of David was king in Jerusalem, he was known to be very wise, and he said: [2] Nothing makes sense! Everything is nonsense. I have seen it all- nothing makes sense! [3] What is there to show for all of our hard work here on this earth? [4] People come, and people go, but still the world never changes. [5] The sun comes up, the sun goes down; it hurries right back to where it started from. [6] The wind blows south, the wind blows north; round and round it blows over and over again. [7] All rivers empty into the sea, but it never spills over; one by one the rivers return to their source. [8] All of life is far more boring than words could ever say. Our eyes and our ears are never satisfied with what we see and hear. [9] Everything that happens has happened before; nothing is new, nothing under the sun. [10] Someone might say, "Here is something new!" But it happened before, long before we were born. [11] No one who lived in the past is remembered anymore, and everyone yet to be born will be forgotten too. [12] I said these things when I lived in Jerusalem as king of Israel. [13] With all my wisdom I tried to understand everything that happens here on earth. And God has made this so hard for us humans to do. [14] I have seen it all, and everything is just as senseless as chasing the wind. [15] If something is crooked, it can't be made straight; if something isn't there, it can't be counted. [16] I said to myself, "You are by far the wisest person who has ever lived in Jerusalem. You are eager to learn, and you have learned a lot." [17] Then I decided to find out all I could about wisdom and foolishness. Soon I realized that this too was as senseless as chasing the wind. [18] The more you know, the more you hurt; the more you understand, the more you suffer.
