Ecclesiastes 1
Contemporary English Version
Nothing Makes Sense
1 When the son of David was king in Jerusalem, he was known to be very wise,[a] and he said:
2 Nothing makes sense!
Everything is nonsense.
I have seen it all—
nothing makes sense!
3 What is there to show
for all of our hard work
here on this earth?
4 (A) People come, and people go,
but still the world
never changes.
5 The sun comes up,
the sun goes down;
it hurries right back
to where it started from.
6 The wind blows south,
the wind blows north;
round and round it blows
over and over again.
7 All rivers empty into the sea,
but it never spills over;
one by one the rivers return
to their source.[b]
8 All of life is far more boring
than words could ever say.
Our eyes and our ears
are never satisfied
with what we see and hear.
9 Everything that happens
has happened before;
nothing is new,
nothing under the sun.
10 Someone might say,
“Here is something new!”
But it happened before,
long before we were born.
11 No one who lived in the past
is remembered anymore,
and everyone yet to be born
will be forgotten too.
It Is Senseless To Be Wise
12 I said these things when I lived in Jerusalem as king of Israel. 13 With all my wisdom I tried to understand everything that happens here on earth. And God has made this so hard for us humans to do. 14 I have seen it all, and everything is just as senseless as chasing the wind.[c]
15 If something is crooked,
it can't be made straight;
if something isn't there,
it can't be counted.
16 (B) I said to myself, “You are by far the wisest person who has ever lived in Jerusalem. You are eager to learn, and you have learned a lot.” 17 Then I decided to find out all I could about wisdom and foolishness. Soon I realized that this too was as senseless as chasing the wind.[d]
18 The more you know,
the more you hurt;
the more you understand,
the more you suffer.
Footnotes
- 1.1 known to be very wise: This stands for the Hebrew word often translated “preacher” or “teacher.” The word may refer to someone who was a very wise leader or to someone who had become wise from collecting sayings about wisdom.
- 1.7 return to their source: Or “flow into the sea.”
- 1.14 chasing the wind: Or “eating the wind.”
- 1.17 chasing the wind: See the note at 1.14.
Ecclesiastes 1
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 1
1 The words of David’s son, Qoheleth, king in Jerusalem:[a](A)
Vanity of Human Toil
3 What profit have we from all the toil
which we toil at under the sun?[c](C)
4 One generation departs and another generation comes,
but the world forever stays.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets;
then it presses on to the place where it rises.
6 Shifting south, then north,
back and forth shifts the wind, constantly shifting its course.
7 All rivers flow to the sea,
yet never does the sea become full.
To the place where they flow,
the rivers continue to flow.
8 All things are wearisome,[d]
too wearisome for words.
The eye is not satisfied by seeing
nor has the ear enough of hearing.(D)
9 What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!(E) 10 Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.(F) 11 There is no remembrance of past generations;(G) nor will future generations be remembered by those who come after them.[e]
I. Qoheleth’s Investigation of Life
Twofold Introduction. 12 I, Qoheleth, was king over Israel in Jerusalem, 13 and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun.(H)
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.[f](I)
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight,
and you cannot count what is not there.[g]
16 (J)Though I said to myself, “See, I have greatly increased my wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has broad experience of wisdom and knowledge,” 17 yet when I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly, I learned that this also is a chase after wind.(K)
18 For in much wisdom there is much sorrow;
whoever increases knowledge increases grief.[h]
Footnotes
- 1:1 David’s son…king in Jerusalem: the intent of the author is to identify himself with Solomon. This is a literary device, by which the author hopes to commend his work to the public under the name of Israel’s most famous sage (see 1 Kgs 5:9–14).
- 1:2 Vanity of vanities: a Hebrew superlative expressing the supreme degree of futility and emptiness.
- 1:3 Under the sun: used throughout this book to signify “on the earth.”
- 1:8 All things are wearisome: or, “All speech is wearisome.”
- 1:11 Movement in nature and human activity appears to result in change and progress. The author argues that this change and progress are an illusion: “Nothing is new under the sun.”
- 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.
- 1:18 Sorrow…grief: these terms refer not just to a store of knowledge or to psychological or emotional pain. Corporal punishment, sometimes quite harsh, was also employed frequently by parents and teachers.
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