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Ecclesiastes 1
New International Version

### Everything Is Meaningless

1 The words of the Teacher,[a](A) son of David, king in Jerusalem:(B)

2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”(C)

3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?(D)
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.(E)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.(F)
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.(G)
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,(H)
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;(I)
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 No one remembers the former generations,(J)
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.(K)

### Wisdom Is Meaningless

12 I, the Teacher,(L) was king over Israel in Jerusalem.(M) 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.(N) What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!(O) 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.(P)

15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;(Q)
what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me;(R) I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom,(S) and also of madness and folly,(T) but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;(U)
the more knowledge, the more grief.(V)

#### Footnotes

1. Ecclesiastes 1:1 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12

#### Cross references

1. Ecclesiastes 1:1 : ver 12; Ecc 7:27; 12:10
2. Ecclesiastes 1:1 : S Pr 1:1
3. Ecclesiastes 1:2 : Ps 39:5-6; 62:9; Ecc 12:8; Ro 8:20-21
4. Ecclesiastes 1:3 : Ecc 2:11, 22; 3:9; 5:15-16
5. Ecclesiastes 1:4 : S Job 8:19
6. Ecclesiastes 1:5 : Ps 19:5-6
7. Ecclesiastes 1:7 : Job 36:28
8. Ecclesiastes 1:8 : Pr 27:20
9. Ecclesiastes 1:9 : Ecc 2:12; 3:15
10. Ecclesiastes 1:11 : Ge 40:23; Ecc 9:15
11. Ecclesiastes 1:11 : Ps 88:12; Ecc 2:16; 8:10; 9:5
12. Ecclesiastes 1:12 : S ver 1
13. Ecclesiastes 1:12 : Ecc 2:9
14. Ecclesiastes 1:13 : S Job 28:3
15. Ecclesiastes 1:13 : S Ge 3:17; Ecc 3:10
16. Ecclesiastes 1:14 : Ecc 2:11, 17; 4:4; 6:9
17. Ecclesiastes 1:15 : Ecc 7:13
18. Ecclesiastes 1:16 : S 1Ki 3:12
19. Ecclesiastes 1:17 : Ecc 7:23; 8:16
20. Ecclesiastes 1:17 : Ecc 2:3, 12; 7:25
21. Ecclesiastes 1:18 : Jer 45:3
22. Ecclesiastes 1:18 : Ecc 2:23; 12:12

New International Version (NIV)

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