Chronological

The Heading

1 The words of Ecclesiastes,^[a] David’s son, king in Jerusalem.

The Problem

² “Nothing but vapor,”^[b] Ecclesiastes said. “Totally vapor. Everything is just vapor that vanishes.”

³ What does anyone gain by all his hard work, at which he works hard under the sun? ⁴ A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth keeps standing forever. ⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets. It hurries back, panting and out of breath, to its starting point, where it rises again. ⁶ The wind goes round and round. Blowing south, then blowing north, the wind keeps going around in circles. ⁷ All streams keep flowing to the sea, but the sea is never full. The streams keep coming back to the same place, and then they flow out again.

⁸ Everything is tedious and tiresome, more than one can tell. No eye ever sees enough, and no ear ever gets its fill of hearing.

⁹ Whatever has been is what will be again, and whatever has already been done is what will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰ Is there a single thing about which one can say, “Look, this is new”? It was already here ages ago, long before us. ¹¹ No one remembers the people who^[c] came before us, and as for those who are coming—after they are gone, no one will remember them either.

Search for a Solution

¹² I, Ecclesiastes, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my heart to seek out and explore with wisdom everything done under the sky.^[d] (What a burdensome task^[e] God has given the children of Adam to keep them busy!) ¹⁴ I have seen all the actions done under the sun, and, look, it is all nothing but vapor. It is all chasing the wind. ¹⁵ Whatever is crooked cannot be straightened. Whatever is not there cannot be counted.

¹⁶ I thought in my heart, “Look, I have become great and accumulated more wisdom than anyone ruling over Jerusalem before me. My mind^[f] has absorbed so much wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ I applied my heart to understand wisdom and knowledge, madness and stupidity. I realized that this too is chasing the wind. ¹⁸ In fact, with much wisdom comes much frustration.^[g] The more knowledge, the more pain!

2 I thought in my heart, “Go ahead, test yourself with^[h] pleasure to see what is good.”^[i] But, oh, that too is vapor.

² About laughter, I said, “Madness!” About pleasure, “What good is it?”

³ As my heart kept guiding me with wisdom, I put it to work researching how to relax my body^[j] with wine and how to grasp why people do stupid things.^[k] My goal was to see what was good for people to do under the sky, during the few days of their lives.

⁴ I undertook great projects. I built houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself. ⁵ I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted every kind of fruit tree in them. ⁶ I made reservoirs of water for myself to irrigate a forest of sprouting trees. ⁷ I acquired male and female servants. I also had slaves that were born in my own house. Livestock too! I had more herds and flocks than anyone before me in Jerusalem. ⁸ I piled up silver and gold for myself, as well as treasures from kings and provinces. I acquired male singers and female singers for myself, and what gives great pleasure to men—one concubine after another.^[l]

⁹ So I became great, and I surpassed all who were in Jerusalem before me. Nevertheless, my wisdom still stayed with me. ¹⁰ Whatever my eyes desired I did not withhold from them. I did not hold my heart back from any pleasure. My heart even took pleasure in all my hard work. This was what I got from all my hard work.

¹¹ But when I turned my attention to everything that my hands had done and to how hard I had worked for it—note this—it was all vapor, all chasing the wind. There was no benefit under the sun.

¹² I turned my attention to consider wisdom, madness, and stupidity—for what will the man do who will succeed the king? Only what has already been done. ¹³ I saw wisdom is better than stupidity, as light is better than darkness. ¹⁴ The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also knew that one fate meets^[m] them all. ¹⁵ So I said in my heart, “The same fate that meets the fool will also meet me. So why then have I been overly wise?” So I said in my heart, “This too is just vapor.”

¹⁶ No one will remember the wise man or the fool for long. In days to come, all of them will already be forgotten. How does the wise man die? Just like the fool. ¹⁷ So I hated life, because the work done under the sun was so frustrating for me, because everything is vapor and chasing the wind. ¹⁸ I also hated all the results of my hard work, for which I worked so hard under the sun, since I must leave it all to the man who comes after me. ¹⁹ And who knows—will he be wise, or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the results of my hard work, for which I worked so hard and so wisely, under the sun. This too is vapor that vanishes.

²⁰ So I changed my course, and my heart began to despair over all my hard work at which I worked so hard under the sun. ²¹ Sure, there may be a man who has worked hard—wisely, aptly, and skillfully. But he must hand over whatever he accumulated by all his hard work to a man who has not worked hard for it. This too is vapor. It’s so unfair! ²² For what does a man gain through all his hard work, through all the turmoil in his heart, as he works so hard under the sun?

²³ Pain fills all his days. His occupation is frustration. Even at night his heart does not rest. This too is vapor.

The Best We Can Hope For

²⁴ There is nothing better for a man than to eat and to drink and to find joy in his work. This too, I saw, is from God’s hand. ²⁵ For who can eat or enjoy himself apart from him?^{[n] 26} Yes, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to the man whom he considers good, but to the person who goes on sinning God gives the task of gathering and collecting, but only so that he can give it all to a person whom God considers good. This too is vapor, nothing but chasing wind.

Everything in Its Time

⁹ What does the worker gain from his hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the task which God has given the children of Adam to keep them busy. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Yes, he has also put eternity in their hearts, yet it is not possible for man to understand the work that God has done from beginning to end.

¹² I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy good things^[o] while they live. ¹³ Also, when anyone eats, drinks, and experiences the good things that his hard work leads to—this is God’s gift.

¹⁴ I know that everything God does will last forever. Nothing can be added to it or taken away from it. God acts so that people will fear him. ¹⁵ Whatever exists now has already been, and whatever will be has already been. God makes whatever has already passed come again.^[p]

There Is No Justice

¹⁶ I saw something else under the sun: In the place where justice should be, there was wickedness, and in the place for righteousness, there was wickedness. ¹⁷ I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked. Yes, there will be a time for every case to be settled before God.”^[q]

¹⁸ So I said in my heart, “This is done so that God can test the children of Adam, so that they can see what animals they are if left to themselves.”^{[r] 19} For the outcome^[s] for the children of Adam and the outcome for animals is the same. One dies just like the other. All have the same breath. Mankind has no advantage over animals, because everything is vapor. ²⁰ All go to the same place. All were from the dust, and to the dust all return. ²¹ Who knows whether the spirit^[t] of the man goes upward, and the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?

²² So I saw that there is nothing better for man than to be happy in his activities, since that is his reward.^[u] For who will show him what there will be after him?

4 I looked again, and I saw all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Just look at the tears of the oppressed, who have no one to comfort them! Their violent oppressors had the upper hand, and there was no one to comfort them.

² So I congratulate the dead, who already have died, more than the living, who are still alive. ³ But better than either of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil done under the sun.

⁴ I also saw that all hard work and all accomplishment are the result of a person’s envy of his neighbor. This too is vapor and chasing the wind.

⁵ The fool idly folds his hands and eats his own flesh. ⁶ Better one handful with relaxation, than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.

⁷ I looked again and saw another example of meaningless vapor under the sun: ⁸ There was a single person all alone, without even a son or a brother, and there was no end to all his hard work. His eyes also were not satisfied with wealth. “So for whom am I working so hard,” he asks, “and depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is vapor and a miserable task.

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their hard work. ¹⁰ If one of them falls, his companion can lift him up. Pity the person who falls and has no one else to lift him up. ¹¹ What’s more, if two lie down, they can keep warm, but how can one person keep warm alone? ¹² Though an attacker can overpower one person, two people together can stand up against him. A rope with three strands is not quickly snapped.

¹³ Better a poor but wise child than an old but foolish king, who no longer knows enough to pay attention to a warning, ¹⁴ for he came out of prison to rule as king, even though he had been born poor in the land that became his kingdom.^{[v] 15} I saw that all the living, all those people walking under the sun, sided with the king’s successor, the child who took his place. ¹⁶ There was no end to all the people who were before them. Yet people who come later will not be pleased with him. This too is vapor and chasing the wind.

Empty Vows, Empty Words

5 Watch your step when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen, rather than to give the kind of sacrifice fools give, for they do not know that they are doing wrong.^{[w] 2} Do not be hasty with your mouth, and in your heart do not be in a hurry to bring a matter before God, because God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. ³ As too much busyness leads to dreams, too many words lead to foolish talk.

⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, for he takes no delight in fools. Fulfill whatever you have vowed. ⁵ Better that you do not vow, than that you do make a vow and do not fulfill it. ⁶ Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say to the temple official that the vow was a mistake. Why should God be angry because of what you say and ruin the work your hands have done?

⁷ A lot of dreaming produces a lot of vapor. So does a lot of words.^[x] Instead, fear God.

Life Is Futile

⁸ If you see the poor being oppressed, and you see the province being robbed of justice and fairness, do not be shocked about the situation, because one high official is watched by a higher one, and higher ones are over them! ⁹ All officials take their cut of the profit from the land; even the king benefits from the fields.^[y]

¹⁰ Anyone who loves money is never satisfied with money, and anyone who loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is vanishing vapor.

¹¹ When goods increase, so do those who eat them. What profit, then, does the owner get, except to see these things with his eyes?

¹² The worker’s sleep is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but a rich person’s abundant possessions allow him no sleep.

¹³ I have seen a sickening evil under the sun—wealth hoarded by its owner to his own harm, ¹⁴ or wealth that is lost in a bad investment. Or a man fathers a son, but he has nothing left in his hand to give him. ¹⁵ As he came out from his mother’s womb, so he will go again, naked as he came. From his hard work he can pick up nothing that he can carry away in his hand. ¹⁶ This too is a sickening evil: Just as he came, so he will go. So what does he gain, he who works for the wind? ¹⁷ Besides this, during all his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, sickness, and anger.

¹⁸ So then, here is what I have seen to be good: It is beautiful to eat, to drink, and to look for good in all a person’s hard work which he has done under the sun, during the few days of his life that God has given him, for that is his reward. ¹⁹ Likewise, for everyone to whom God has given wealth and riches, if God has also given him ability to eat from it, to enjoy his reward,^[z] and to rejoice in the results of his hard work—this is a gift of God, ²⁰ for the man seldom reflects on the days of his life, since God keeps him busy with the joy in his heart.

6 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, a common burden that people bear:^{[aa] 2} God gives somebody wealth, riches, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of everything that he craves, but God does not give him the opportunity to eat it. Instead, a stranger eats it. This is vapor, and a sickening evil.

³ A man may father a hundred children and live many years, but if his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, no matter how many days he lives, I say, “A stillborn baby is better off than he is.” ⁴ Why? Because that baby comes like a vapor and leaves in darkness, and its name gets covered in darkness. ⁵ The baby does not see the sun or know it,^[ab] but it enjoys more peaceful rest than that man does, ⁶ even if that man would live a thousand years two times without enjoying good things. They all go to the same place, don’t they?

⁷ All of a man’s hard work is to feed his mouth, but his appetite^[ac] never feels satisfied.

⁸ So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool? What advantage does a poor man gain, who knows how to keep walking among the living?^{[ad] 9} Better to have eyes that look at what is actually there than desires that roam. This too is vapor and chasing the wind.

¹⁰ Whatever exists already has its name,^[ae] and it is already known what man is. He is not able to win in court against one who is stronger than he is.^[af]

¹¹ Yes, the more words,^[ag] the more vapor. What advantage does a man have?

¹² For who knows what is good for a man in life, in the few days of his life, that vanishes like vapor, that passes like a shadow?^[ah] Who will tell the man what will be after him, under the sun?