Ecclesiastes 1
About EcclesiastesWritten by AI
Ecclesiastes is wisdom of a different kind: an honest look at life "under the sun", where so much seems fleeting and unfair. The speaker is called the Teacher, a son of David and king in Jerusalem. Jewish and Christian tradition has long taken this to be Solomon. Many scholars think a later writer used Solomon's voice, and faithful readers hold both views.
The book opens with its famous refrain, “Everything is futile!” The word means a breath or vapor: brief, hard to grasp. The Teacher tests pleasure, work, wealth and wisdom, and finds none of them gives lasting meaning on its own.
Watch for two threads that run through the gloom. Again and again he says to enjoy food, work and love as gifts from God's hand. And the book ends by pointing beyond itself: fear God and keep His commandments, because God will bring every deed to judgment.
Before you read Ecclesiastes 1Written by AI
The Teacher introduces himself and his theme: everything is a fleeting breath. Generations come and go, the sun rises and sets, and there is nothing new under the sun. He then tells how he set out to understand life by wisdom, and found that more wisdom brought more sorrow.
Everything Is Futile
These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:
“Futility of futilities,”
says the Teacher,
“futility of futilities!
Everything is futile!”
What does a man gain from all his labor,
at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets;
it hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows southward,
then turns northward;
round and round it swirls,
ever returning on its course.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full;
to the place from which the streams come,
there again they flow.
All things are wearisome,
more than one can describe;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear content with hearing.
What has been will be again,
and what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a case where one can say,
“Look, this is new”?
It has already existed
in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance
of those who came before,
and those yet to come will not be remembered
by those who follow after.
With Wisdom Comes Sorrow
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
What is crooked cannot be straightened,
and what is lacking cannot be counted.
I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”
So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.
For with much wisdom comes much sorrow,
and as knowledge grows, grief increases.