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1:1  The words of the Teacher of the Assembly, David’s son, king in Jerusalem:
1:2  Perfectly pointless, says the Teacher, perfectly pointless. Everything is pointless.
1:3  What do people gain from all the hard work that they work so hard at under the sun?
1:4  A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains as it always has.
1:5  The sun rises, the sun sets; it returns panting to the place where it dawns.
1:6  The wind blows to the south, goes around to the north; around and around blows the wind; the wind returns to its rounds again.
1:7  All streams flow to the sea, but the sea is never full; to the place where the rivers flow, there they continue to flow.
1:8  All words are tiring; no one is able to speak. The eye isn’t satisfied with seeing, neither is the ear filled up by hearing.
1:9  Whatever has happened—that’s what will happen again; whatever has occurred—that’s what will occur again. There’s nothing new under the sun.
1:10  People may say about something: “Look at this! It’s new!” But it was already around for ages before us.
1:11  There’s no remembrance of things in the past, nor of things to come in the future. Neither will there be any remembrance among those who come along in the future.
1:12  I am the Teacher. I was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
1:13  I applied my mind to investigate and to explore by wisdom all that happens under heaven. It’s an unhappy obsession that God has given to human beings.
1:14  When I observed all that happens under the sun, I realized that everything is pointless, a chasing after wind.
1:15  What’s crooked can’t be straightened; what isn’t there can’t be counted.
1:16  I said to myself, Look here, I have grown much wiser than any who ruled over Jerusalem before me. My mind has absorbed great wisdom and knowledge.
1:17  But when I set my mind to understand wisdom, and also to understand madness and folly, I realized that this too was just wind chasing.
1:18  Remember: In much wisdom is much aggravation; the more knowledge, the more pain.