Sunday, December 31. 2023
Ecclesiastes 1
- 1
- The words of the Teacher, [1] son of David, king in Jerusalem:
- 2
- "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
- 3
- What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
- 4
- Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
- 5
- The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
- 6
- The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
- 7
- All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
- 8
- All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
- 9
- What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
- 10
- Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
- 11
- There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
- 12
- I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
- 13
- I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!
- 14
- I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
- 15
- What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
- 16
- I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge."
- 17
- Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
- 18
- For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
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