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1:1  These are the words of the Teacher, King David's son, who ruled in Jerusalem.
1:2  "Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "completely meaningless!"
1:3  What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?
1:4  Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.
1:5  The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.
1:6  The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.
1:7  Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.
1:8  Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
1:9  History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
1:10  Sometimes people say, "Here is something new!" But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.
1:11  We don't remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
1:12  I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem.
1:13  I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race.
1:14  I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless--like chasing the wind.
1:15  What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered.
1:16  I said to myself, "Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them."
1:17  So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.
1:18  The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.