Ecclesiastes 1:9-2:1

New International Version

⁹What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;^(A)
    there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.
¹¹No one remembers the former generations,^(B)
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.^(C)

Wisdom Is Meaningless

¹²I, the Teacher,^(D) was king over Israel in Jerusalem.^(E) ¹³I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.^(F) What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!^(G) ¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.^(H)

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be straightened;^(I)
what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me;^(J) I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom,^(K) and also of madness and folly,^(L) but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;^(M)
the more knowledge, the more grief.^(N)