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Ecclesiastes 1:3-5
New Catholic Bible
Ecclesiastes 1:3-5
New Catholic Bible
3 What profit does anyone gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?[a]
Introductory Poem[b]
There Is Nothing New under the Sun
4 One generation passes away and another generation succeeds it,
but the earth stands firm forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets;
then it returns to the place where it rises.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 1:3 Jesus expands on this same theme in Mk 8:36-38. Under the sun: i.e., the present world and its limits. A synonym is “under heaven” (see v. 13; 2:3; 3:1).
- Ecclesiastes 1:4 The author takes the opposite tack to the wonder and adoration excited by the universe in Job (chs. 38–40); for him, no event can change the course of things: nothing deserves to occupy our memories to this point: there is no history!
