Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Good News Translation
2 It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless, all useless. 3 You spend your life working, laboring, and what do you have to show for it? 4 (A)Generations come and generations go, but the world stays just the same. 5 The sun still rises, and it still goes down, going wearily back to where it must start all over again. 6 The wind blows south, the wind blows north—round and round and back again. 7 Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not yet full. The water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again. 8 Everything leads to weariness—a weariness too great for words. Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; our ears can never hear enough. 9 What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world. 10 “Look,” they say, “here is something new!” But no, it has all happened before, long before we were born. 11 No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then.
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Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
New International Version
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”(A)
3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?(B)
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.(C)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.(D)
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.(E)
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,(F)
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;(G)
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 No one remembers the former generations,(H)
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.(I)
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