² Perfectly pointless,^[b] says the Teacher, perfectly pointless.
    Everything is pointless.

³ What do people gain from all the hard work
    that they work so hard at under the sun?
⁴ A generation goes, and a generation comes,
    but the earth remains as it always has.
⁵ The sun rises, the sun sets;
    it returns panting to the place where it dawns.
⁶ The wind blows to the south,
    goes around to the north;
    around and around blows the wind;
    the wind returns to its rounds again.
⁷ All streams flow to the sea,
    but the sea is never full;
    to the place where the rivers flow,
    there they continue to flow.
⁸ All words^[c] are tiring;
    no one is able to speak.
    The eye isn’t satisfied with seeing,
    neither is the ear filled up by hearing.
⁹ Whatever has happened—that’s what will happen again;
    whatever has occurred—that’s what will occur again.

90 Lord, you have been our help,
    generation after generation.
² Before the mountains were born,
    before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world—
    from forever in the past
    to forever in the future, you are God.