Ecclesiastes 1

New International Reader's Version

² “Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Everything is completely meaningless!
    Nothing has any meaning.”

³ What do people get for all their work?
    Why do they work so hard on this earth?
⁴ People come and people go.
    But the earth remains forever.
⁵ The sun rises. Then it sets.
    And then it hurries back to where it rises.
⁶ The wind blows to the south.
    Then it turns to the north.
Around and around it goes.
    It always returns to where it started.
⁷ Every stream flows into the ocean.
    But the ocean never gets full.
The streams return
    to the place they came from.
⁸ All things are tiresome.
    They are more tiresome than anyone can say.
But our eyes never see enough of anything.
    Our ears never hear enough.
⁹ Everything that has ever been will come back again.
    Everything that has ever been done will be done again.
    Nothing is new on earth.
¹⁰ There isn’t anything about which someone can say,
    “Look! Here’s something new.”
It was already here long ago.
    It was here before we were.
¹¹ No one remembers the people of long ago.
    Even those who haven’t been born yet
won’t be remembered
    by those who will be born after them.

¹⁵ People can’t straighten things that are crooked.
    They can’t count things that don’t even exist.

¹⁸ A lot of human wisdom leads to a lot of sorrow.
    More knowledge only brings more sadness.