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1:1  These are the words of the teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
1:2  Teacher: Life is fleeting, like a passing mist. It is like trying to catch hold of a breath; All vanishes like a vapor; everything is a great vanity.
1:3  What good does it do anyone to work so hard again and again, sun up to sundown? All his labor to gain but a little?
1:4  One generation comes, another goes; but the earth continues to remain.
1:5  The sun rises and the sun sets, laboring to come up quickly to its place again and again.
1:6  The wind in its travels blows toward the south, then swings back around to the north. Back and forth, returning in its circuit again and again.
1:7  All rivers flow to the sea, but the sea is never full. To the place where the rivers flow, there the water returns to flow once again.
1:8  Words, words, words! So many words! They are wearisome things; and yet people cannot refrain from speaking. No eye has ever surveyed the world and said, “I have seen enough”; no ear has ever listened to creation and said, “I have heard enough.”
1:9  What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun; the future only repeats the past.
1:10  One person may say of some idea, “Pay attention to this; it’s original!” But that same idea has already been expressed; it’s been with us through the ages.
1:11  We do not remember those people and events of long ago, as future generations will not remember what is yet to come.
1:12  I, the teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
1:13  I decided to seek out and study the wisdom of the ages, of all that had been done under the heavens. I soon discovered the harsh realities of the work God has given us that keeps us so busy.
1:14  I have witnessed all that is done under the sun, and indeed, all is fleeting, like trying to embrace the wind.
1:15  There is an old saying: Something crooked cannot be made straight, and something missing cannot be counted.
1:16  I mused over it all and thought to myself, “I have done great things, and I have gained more wisdom than anyone who reigned over Jerusalem before me. I have contemplated great wisdom and knowledge.”
1:17  I decided to study wisdom and instead acquainted myself with madness and folly. It, too, seemed like trying to pursue the wind,
1:18  for as my wisdom increased, so did my vexation. As my knowledge grew, so did my pain.