Ecclesiastes 1:4-11

The Voice

⁴     One generation comes, another goes;
        but the earth continues to remain.
⁵     The sun rises and the sun sets,
        laboring to come up quickly to its place again and again.
⁶     The wind in its travels blows toward the south,
        then swings back around to the north.
    Back and forth,
        returning in its circuit again and again.
⁷     All rivers flow to the sea,
        but the sea is never full.
    To the place where the rivers flow,
        there the water returns to flow once again.
⁸     Words, words, words! So many words! They are wearisome things;
        and yet people cannot refrain from speaking.
    No eye has ever surveyed the world and said, “I have seen enough”;
        no ear has ever listened to creation and said, “I have heard enough.”
⁹     What has been, that will be;
        what has been done, that will be done.
    Nothing is new under the sun;
        the future only repeats the past.
¹⁰     One person may say of some idea,
        “Pay attention to this; it’s original!”
    But that same idea has already been expressed;
        it’s been with us through the ages.
¹¹     We do not remember those people and events of long ago,
        as future generations will not remember what is yet to come.