1 Words of the Preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "vanity of vanities! Everything is vanity."
3 What does a man gain by all the labor he labors at under the sun?
4 One generation departs and another arrives, but the earth remains for ever.
5 The sun comes up and the sun goes down, and it hastens, panting, to the place where it comes up again.
6 The wind goes toward the south and swings around to the north; around and around it goes, and the wind comes back again on its rounds.
7 All the streams flow to the sea, but the sea is never full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can express. The eye never has its fill of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say, "See, this is new"? It existed long ago, in ages before our time.
11 No one remembers those of former times, and those yet to come will not be remembered either by those who come after them.
12 I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 I set my heart to inquire and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given the sons of men to occupy them.
14 I have looked at all the works that are done under the sun, and see, everything is vanity and a chasing of the wind.
15 What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be numbered.
16 I said to myself, "Look, I have grown great and increased in wisdom beyond all who ruled over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge."
17 So I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I perceived that this too is a chasing of the wind.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief, and the one who increases knowledge increases sorrow.