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¹ Words of a preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:² Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity.³ What advantage [is] to man by all his labor that he labors at under the sun?

⁴ A generation is going, and a generation is coming, and the earth is standing for all time.⁵ Also, the sun has risen, and the sun has gone in, and to its place panting it is rising there.⁶ Going to the south, and turning around to the north, turning around, turning around, the wind is going, and by its circuits the wind has returned.⁷ All the streams are going to the sea, and the sea is not full; to a place to where the streams are going, there they are turning back to go.⁸ All these things are wearying; a man is not able to speak, the eye is not satisfied by seeing, nor is the ear filled from hearing.

⁹ What [is] that which has been? It [is] that which is, and what [is] that which has been done? It [is] that which is done, and there is not an entirely new thing under the sun.¹⁰ There is a thing of which [one] says: "See this, it [is] new!" Already it has been in the ages that were before us!¹¹ There is not a remembrance of former [generations]; and also of the latter that are, there is no remembrance of them with those that are at the last.

¹² I, a preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.¹³ And I have given my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that has been done under the heavens. It [is] a sad travail God has given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.¹⁴ I have seen all the works that have been done under the sun, and behold, the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit!¹⁵ A crooked thing [one] is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered.¹⁶ I spoke with my heart, saying, "I, behold, have magnified and added wisdom above everyone who has been before me at Jerusalem, and my heart has seen wisdom and knowledge abundantly.¹⁷ And I give my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I have known that even this [is] distress of spirit;¹⁸ for in abundance of wisdom [is] abundance of sadness, and he who adds knowledge adds pain."