< اَلْجَامِعَةِ 1 >

كَلَامُ ٱلْجَامِعَةِ ٱبْنِ دَاوُدَ ٱلْمَلِكِ فِي أُورُشَلِيمَ: ١ 1
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
بَاطِلُ ٱلْأَبَاطِيلِ، قَالَ ٱلْجَامِعَةُ: بَاطِلُ ٱلْأَبَاطِيلِ، ٱلْكُلُّ بَاطِلٌ. ٢ 2
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
مَا ٱلْفَائِدَةُ لِلْإِنْسَانِ مِنْ كُلِّ تَعَبِهِ ٱلَّذِي يَتْعَبُهُ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّمْسِ؟ ٣ 3
(What do people gain from all the work that they do here on the earth?/It seems that people gain no lasting benefit from all the work that they do here on the earth.) [RHQ]
دَوْرٌ يَمْضِي وَدَوْرٌ يَجِيءُ، وَٱلْأَرْضُ قَائِمَةٌ إِلَى ٱلْأَبَدِ. ٤ 4
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
وَٱلشَّمْسُ تُشْرِقُ، وَٱلشَّمْسُ تَغْرُبُ، وَتُسْرِعُ إِلَى مَوْضِعِهَا حَيْثُ تُشْرِقُ. ٥ 5
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
اَلرِّيحُ تَذْهَبُ إِلَى ٱلْجَنُوبِ، وَتَدُورُ إِلَى ٱلشَّمَالِ. تَذْهَبُ دَائِرَةً دَوَرَانًا، وَإِلَى مَدَارَاتِهَا تَرْجِعُ ٱلرِّيحُ. ٦ 6
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
كُلُّ ٱلْأَنْهَارِ تَجْرِي إِلَى ٱلْبَحْرِ، وَٱلْبَحْرُ لَيْسَ بِمَلآنَ. إِلَى ٱلْمَكَانِ ٱلَّذِي جَرَتْ مِنْهُ ٱلْأَنْهَارُ إِلَى هُنَاكَ تَذْهَبُ رَاجِعَةً. ٧ 7
All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is never full. The water returns [to the sky], and [when it rains], the water returns to the rivers, and it flows again to the sea.
كُلُّ ٱلْكَلَامِ يَقْصُرُ. لَا يَسْتَطِيعُ ٱلْإِنْسَانُ أَنْ يُخْبِرَ بِٱلْكُلِّ. ٱلْعَيْنُ لَا تَشْبَعُ مِنَ ٱلنَّظَرِ، وَٱلْأُذُنُ لَا تَمْتَلِئُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمْعِ. ٨ 8
Everything is boring, [with the result that] we do not even want to talk about it. We [SYN] see things, but we always want to see more. We [SYN] hear things, but we always want to hear more.
مَا كَانَ فَهُوَ مَا يَكُونُ، وَٱلَّذِي صُنِعَ فَهُوَ ٱلَّذِي يُصْنَعُ، فَلَيْسَ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّمْسِ جَدِيدٌ. ٩ 9
[Everything continues to be the same as it has always been]; things that happen have happened previously, and they will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing [really] new in this world [MTY].
إِنْ وُجِدَ شَيْءٌ يُقَالُ عَنْهُ: «ٱنْظُرْ. هَذَا جَدِيدٌ!» فَهُوَ مُنْذُ زَمَانٍ كَانَ فِي ٱلدُّهُورِ ٱلَّتِي كَانَتْ قَبْلَنَا. ١٠ 10
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
لَيْسَ ذِكْرٌ لِلْأَوَّلِينَ. وَٱلْآخِرُونَ أَيْضًا ٱلَّذِينَ سَيَكُونُونَ، لَا يَكُونُ لَهُمْ ذِكْرٌ عِنْدَ ٱلَّذِينَ يَكُونُونَ بَعْدَهُمْ. ١١ 11
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
أَنَا ٱلْجَامِعَةُ كُنْتُ مَلِكًا عَلَى إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي أُورُشَلِيمَ. ١٢ 12
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
وَوَجَّهْتُ قَلْبِي لِلسُّؤَالِ وَٱلتَّفْتِيشِ بِٱلْحِكْمَةِ عَنْ كُلِّ مَا عُمِلَ تَحْتَ ٱلسَّمَاوَاتِ. هُوَ عَنَاءٌ رَدِيءٌ جَعَلَهَا ٱللهُ لِبَنِي ٱلْبَشَرِ لِيَعْنُوا فِيهِ. ١٣ 13
By being wise, I concentrated on understanding everything that was being done on the earth [MTY]. [But I found out that] God causes [all of] us to experience things that cause us to be unhappy/miserable.
رَأَيْتُ كُلَّ ٱلْأَعْمَالِ ٱلَّتِي عُمِلَتْ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّمْسِ فَإِذَا ٱلْكُلُّ بَاطِلٌ وَقَبْضُ ٱلرِّيحِ. ١٤ 14
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
اَلْأَعْوَجُ لَا يُمْكِنُ أَنْ يُقَوَّمَ، وَٱلنَّقْصُ لَا يُمْكِنُ أَنْ يُجْبَرَ. ١٥ 15
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
أَنَا نَاجَيْتُ قَلْبِي قَائِلًا: «هَا أَنَا قَدْ عَظُمْتُ وَٱزْدَدْتُ حِكْمَةً أَكْثَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلِي عَلَى أُورُشَلِيمَ، وَقَدْ رَأَى قَلْبِي كَثِيرًا مِنَ ٱلْحِكْمَةِ وَٱلْمَعْرِفَةِ». ١٦ 16
I said to myself, “[Hey], I am wiser than any of the kings that ruled in Jerusalem before I [became the king]. I am wiser and I know more than any of them!”
وَوَجَّهْتُ قَلْبِي لِمَعْرِفَةِ ٱلْحِكْمَةِ وَلِمَعْرِفَةِ ٱلْحَمَاقَةِ وَٱلْجَهْلِ، فَعَرَفْتُ أَنَّ هَذَا أَيْضًا قَبْضُ ٱلرِّيحِ. ١٧ 17
[So] I determined to learn [more] about being wise and to learn about knowing about many things, and [also] to learn about [doing things that are] very foolish [DOU]. [But] I found out that trying to understand those things was also [useless, like] chasing the wind.
لِأَنَّ فِي كَثْرَةِ ٱلْحِكْمَةِ كَثْرَةُ ٱلْغَمِّ، وَٱلَّذِي يَزِيدُ عِلْمًا يَزِيدُ حُزْنًا. ١٨ 18
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.

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