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1:1  The words of Kohelet, son of David, king in Jerusalem.
1:2  Futile! Futile! says Kohelet. Completely meaningless! Everything is futile!
1:3  What does a person gain in all his labor that he toils under the sun?
1:4  A generation comes, and a generation goes, but the earth remains forever.
1:5  The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to the place it rises.
1:6  The wind goes toward the south, and circles around to the north. Round and round it swirls about, ever returning to its circuits.
1:7  All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they go again.
1:8  All things are wearisome. No one can express them. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
1:9  What has been is what will be, and what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.
1:10  Is there anything about which is said, “Look! This is new!”? It was already here long ago, in the ages long before us.
1:11  There is no remembrance for former things, and things yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
1:12  I, Kohelet, am king over Israel in Jerusalem.
1:13  I applied my heart to seek and examine by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a burdensome task God has given the sons of men to keep them occupied.
1:14  I have seen all the deeds done under the sun; and behold, all is meaningless and chasing after the wind.
1:15  What is crooked cannot be made straight. What is missing cannot be counted.
1:16  I spoke with my heart saying: “I have grown rich and increased in wisdom more than any who were before me over Jerusalem. Indeed, my heart has experienced much wisdom and knowledge.”
1:17  So I applied my heart to know wisdom as well as to know madness and folly. I learned that this too was pursuit of the wind.
1:18  For with much wisdom comes much grief, and whoever keeps increasing knowledge, increases heartache.