Ecclesiastes 1
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Israel in Jerusalem.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 What advantage [is there] to a man in all his labor that he takes under the sun?
(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]
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes: but the earth stands for ever.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 And the sun arises, and the sun goes down and draws toward its place;
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 arising there it proceeds southward, and goes round toward the north. The wind goes round and round, and the wind returns to its circuits.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 All the rivers run into the sea; and yet the sea is not filled: to the place whence the rivers come, there they return again.
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.
8 All things are full of labor; a man will not be able to speak [of them]: neither shall the eye be satisfied with seeing, neither shall the ear be filled with hearing.
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.
9 What is that which has been? the very thing which shall be: and what is that which has been done? the very thing which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
[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].
10 [Who is he] that shall speak and say, Behold, this is new? it has already been in the ages that have passed before us.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 There is no memorial to the first things; neither to the things that have been last shall their memorial be with them that shall at the last [time].
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 And I applied my heart to seek out and examine by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven, for God has given to the sons of men an evil trouble to be troubled therewith.
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.
14 I saw all the works that were wrought under the sun; and, saw, all were vanity and waywardness of spirit.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 That which is crooked can’t be made straight: and deficiency can’t be numbered.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 I spoke in my heart, saying, Behold, I am increased, and have acquired wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem: also I applied my heart to know wisdom and knowledge.
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!”
17 And my heart knew much—wisdom, and knowledge, parables and understanding: I perceived that this also is waywardness of spirit.
[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.
18 For in the abundance of wisdom is abundance of knowledge; and he that increases knowledge will increase sorrow.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
