Concluding Thoughts about the Teacher

⁸ “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless.”

Everything Is Meaningless

² “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

⁸ None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.

¹² In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone?

⁴ Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

¹⁷ So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

¹⁴ I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.