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The Futility of All Endeavors

¹ The words of the ^(C1)Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

² "^(C1)Futility of futilities," says the Preacher,
"Futility of futilities! All is futility."

^3 (C1)What advantage does a person have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?

⁴ A generation goes and a generation comes,
But the ^(C1)earth ^(F1)remains forever.

⁵ Also, ^(C1)the sun rises and the sun sets;
And ^(F1)hurrying to its place it rises there again.

^6 (F1)(C1)Blowing toward the south,
Then turning toward the north,
The wind continues ^(F2)swirling along;
And on its circular courses the wind returns.

⁷ All the rivers ^(F1)flow into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full.
To the place where the rivers ^(F1)flow,
There they ^(F1)flow again.

⁸ All things are wearisome;
No one can tell it.
^(C1)The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing.

^9 (C1)What has been, it is what will be,
And what has been done, it is what will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰ Is there anything of which one might say,
"See this, it is new"?
It has already existed for ages
Which were before us.

¹¹ There is ^(C1)no remembrance of the ^(F1)earlier things,
And of the later things as well, which will occur,
There will be no remembrance of them
Among those who will come later still.

The Futility of Wisdom

¹² I, the ^(C1)Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.¹³ And I ^(C1)set my ^(F1)mind to seek and ^(C2)explore by wisdom about everything that has been done under heaven. It is a ^(F2)(C3)sorry task with which God has given the sons of mankind to be troubled.¹⁴ I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is ^(C1)futility and striving after wind.¹⁵ What is ^(C1)crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶ I ^(F1)said to myself, "Behold, I have magnified and increased ^(C1)wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my ^(F2)mind has observed ^(F3)a wealth of wisdom and knowledge."¹⁷ And I ^(C1)applied my ^(F1)mind to know wisdom and to ^(C2)know insanity and foolishness; I realized that this also is ^(C3)striving after wind.¹⁸ Because ^(C1)in much wisdom there is much grief; and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.