Ecclesiastes 1:1-3

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)

Footnotes

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

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

New International Version

¹⁰I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
¹¹Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;^(A)
    nothing was gained under the sun.^(B)

Read full chapter

Ecclesiastes 2:14-23

New International Version

¹⁴The wise have eyes in their heads,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.^(A)

¹⁵Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”^(B)
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;^(C)
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.^(D)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!^(E)

Toil Is Meaningless

¹⁷So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.^(F) ¹⁸I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.^(G) ¹⁹And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish?^(H) Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²²What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?^(I) ²³All their days their work is grief and pain;^(J) even at night their minds do not rest.^(K) This too is meaningless.

Read full chapter

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

New International Version

¹⁸I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.^(A) ¹⁹Surely the fate of human beings^(B) is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath^[a]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.^(C) ²¹Who knows if the human spirit rises upward^(D) and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”