Ecclesiastes 1

New International Version

Everything Is Meaningless

1 The words of the Teacher,^[a]^(A) son of David, king in Jerusalem:^(B)

²“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”^(C)

³What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?^(D)
⁴Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.^(E)
⁵The sun rises and the sun sets,
    and hurries back to where it rises.^(F)
⁶The wind blows to the south
    and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
    ever returning on its course.
⁷All streams flow into the sea,
    yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
    there they return again.^(G)
⁸All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,^(H)
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;^(I)
    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,^(J)
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.^(K)

Wisdom Is Meaningless

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

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be straightened;^(Q)
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;^(R) I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom,^(S) and also of madness and folly,^(T) but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

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

Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 1:1 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12

Ecclesiastes 9

New International Version

A Common Destiny for All

9 So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.^(A) ²All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad,^[a] the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
so with those who are afraid to take them.^(B)

³This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.^(C) The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live,^(D) and afterward they join the dead.^(E) ⁴Anyone who is among the living has hope^[b]—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

⁵For the living know that they will die,
    but the dead know nothing;^(F)
they have no further reward,
    and even their name^(G) is forgotten.^(H)
⁶Their love, their hate
    and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
    in anything that happens under the sun.^(I)

⁷Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine^(J) with a joyful heart,^(K) for God has already approved what you do. ⁸Always be clothed in white,^(L) and always anoint your head with oil. ⁹Enjoy life with your wife,^(M) whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot^(N) in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. ¹⁰Whatever^(O) your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,^(P) for in the realm of the dead,^(Q) where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.^(R)

¹¹I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,^(S)
nor does food come to the wise^(T)
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance^(U) happen to them all.^(V)

¹²Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times^(W)
that fall unexpectedly upon them.^(X)

Wisdom Better Than Folly

¹³I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom^(Y) that greatly impressed me: ¹⁴There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. ¹⁵Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.^(Z) ¹⁶So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.^(AA)

¹⁷The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
¹⁸Wisdom^(AB) is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroys much good.

Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 9:2 Septuagint (Aquila), Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew does not have and the bad.
Ecclesiastes 9:4 Or What then is to be chosen? With all who live, there is hope