All Is Vanity

¹The words of the Preacher,1 the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

²Vanity2 of vanities, says the Preacher,

vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

³What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

⁴A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but the earth remains forever.

⁵The sun rises, and the sun goes down,

and hastens3 to the place where it rises.

⁶The wind blows to the south

and goes around to the north;

around and around goes the wind,

and on its circuits the wind returns.

⁷All streams run to the sea,

but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

there they flow again.

⁸All things are full of weariness;

a man cannot utter it;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear filled with hearing.

⁹What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰Is there a thing of which it is said,

“See, this is new”?

It has been already

in the ages before us.

¹¹There is no remembrance of former things,4

nor will there be any remembrance

of later things5 yet to be

among those who come after.

The Vanity of Wisdom

¹²I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³And I applied my heart6 to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹⁴I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity7 and a striving after wind.8

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be made straight,

and what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

¹⁸For in much wisdom is much vexation,

and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

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