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1:1  The words of David’s son, Qoheleth, king in Jerusalem:
1:2  Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
1:3  What profit have we from all the toil which we toil at under the sun?
1:4  One generation departs and another generation comes, but the world forever stays.
1:5  The sun rises and the sun sets; then it presses on to the place where it rises.
1:6  Shifting south, then north, back and forth shifts the wind, constantly shifting its course.
1:7  All rivers flow to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they flow, the rivers continue to flow.
1:8  All things are wearisome, too wearisome for words. The eye is not satisfied by seeing nor has the ear enough of hearing.
1:9  What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!
1:10  Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
1:11  There is no remembrance of past generations; nor will future generations be remembered by those who come after them.
1:12  I, Qoheleth, was king over Israel in Jerusalem,
1:13  and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun. A bad business God has given to human beings to be busied with.
1:14  I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind.
1:15  What is crooked cannot be made straight, and you cannot count what is not there.
1:16  Though I said to myself, “See, I have greatly increased my wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has broad experience of wisdom and knowledge,”
1:17  yet when I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly, I learned that this also is a chase after wind.
1:18  For in much wisdom there is much sorrow; whoever increases knowledge increases grief.