Ecclesiastes 1:13-15
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
13 and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun.(A)
A bad business God has given
to human beings to be busied with.
14 I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind.[a](B)
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight,
and you cannot count what is not there.[b]
Footnotes
- 1:14 A chase after wind: an image of futile activity, like an attempt to corral the winds; cf. Hos 12:2. The ancient versions understood “affliction, dissipation of the spirit.” This phrase concludes sections of the text as far as 6:9.
- 1:15 You cannot count what is not there: perhaps originally a commercial metaphor alluding to loss or deficit in the accounts ledger.
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