| Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem. | 1These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem. Everything Is Meaningless |
| 2"Absolute futility," says the Teacher. "Absolute futility. Everything is futile." | 2“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” |
| 3What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun? | 3What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? |
| 4A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. | 4Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. |
| 5The sun rises and the sun sets; panting, it returns to the place where it rises. | 5The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. |
| 6Gusting to the south, turning to the north, turning, turning, goes the wind, and the wind returns in its cycles. | 6The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. |
| 7All the streams flow to the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. | 7Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. |
| 8All things are wearisome, more than anyone can say. The eye is not satisfied by seeing or the ear filled with hearing. | 8Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. |
| 9What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. | 9History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. |
| 10Can one say about anything, "Look, this is new"? It has already existed in the ages before us. | 10Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. |
| 11There is no remembrance of those who came before; and of those who will come after there will also be no remembrance by those who follow them. | 11We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now. The Teacher Speaks: The Futility of Wisdom |
| 12I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. | 12I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. |
| 13I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven. God has given people this miserable task to keep them occupied. | 13I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race. |
| 14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. | 14I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind. |
| 15What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted. | 15What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered. |
| 16I said to myself, "See, I have amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge." | 16I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” |
| 17I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly; I learned that this too is a pursuit of the wind. | 17So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind. |
| 18For with much wisdom is much sorrow; as knowledge increases, grief increases. | 18The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow. |
| The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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