Eclesiastés 1

Breath upon breath

¹These are the words of the Teacher, David’s son, king in Jerusalem.^{ab 2}Breath upon breath, says the Teacher, breath upon breath! Everything is a breath.^{c 3}What do people gain from all the hard work they do under the sun? ⁴One generation goes and another comes, \q but the earth remains forever. ⁵The sun rises and the sun sets, \q and it hurries back, panting, to the place where it rises again. ⁶It blows to the south and turns to the north, \q round and round goes the wind, \q and on its rounds the wind comes back again. ⁷All the streams run to the sea, \q yet the sea is never full; \q to the place where the streams run, \q there they keep on running.^{d 8}Everything is wearisome, \q more than anyone can say; \q the eye is never satisfied with seeing, \q and the ear is never filled with hearing.^{e 9}What has been is what will be, \q and what has been done is what will be done; \q there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰Is there anything of which people say, “Look, this is new”? \q It was already here long ages before us. ¹¹No one remembers those who came before, \q and those who are yet to come \q will not be remembered by those who come after them.^f

The Teacher searches out wisdom

¹²I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³I set my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. It is a miserable task that God has given human beings to keep them busy. ¹⁴I have seen all the deeds that are done under the sun, and I found that everything is a breath and chasing the wind.^{g 15}What is twisted cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be counted. ¹⁶I said to myself, “I have gained more and more wisdom, more than all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has taken in a great deal of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷So I set my mind to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I came to see that this too is chasing the wind. ¹⁸For with much wisdom comes much vexation, and whoever adds to knowledge adds to pain.