Life Is Useless

1 These are the words of the Philosopher, David's son, who was king in Jerusalem.

² It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless, all useless. ³ You spend your life working, laboring, and what do you have to show for it? ^4 (A)Generations come and generations go, but the world stays just the same. ⁵ The sun still rises, and it still goes down, going wearily back to where it must start all over again. ⁶ The wind blows south, the wind blows north—round and round and back again. ⁷ Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not yet full. The water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again. ⁸ Everything leads to weariness—a weariness too great for words. Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; our ears can never hear enough. ⁹ What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world. ¹⁰ “Look,” they say, “here is something new!” But no, it has all happened before, long before we were born. ¹¹ No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then.

The Philosopher's Experience

¹² I, the Philosopher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I determined that I would examine and study all the things that are done in this world.

God has laid a miserable fate upon us. ¹⁴ I have seen everything done in this world, and I tell you, it is all useless. It is like chasing the wind. ¹⁵ You can't straighten out what is crooked; you can't count things that aren't there.

^16 (B)I told myself, “I have become a great man, far wiser than anyone who ruled Jerusalem before me. I know what wisdom and knowledge really are.” ¹⁷ I was determined to learn the difference between knowledge and foolishness, wisdom and madness. But I found out that I might as well be chasing the wind. ¹⁸ The wiser you are, the more worries you have; the more you know, the more it hurts.