Ecclesiastes 1 NIV NLT Parallel

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◄ Ecclesiastes 1 ►

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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"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

2“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

3What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

3What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?

4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

4Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.

5The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

5The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.

6The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

6The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.

7All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return 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 one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of 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 will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

9History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

10Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

10Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.

11No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered 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, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

12I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem.

13I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!

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; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after 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, "Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of 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.”

17Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after 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 comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

18The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.

New International Version (NIV)

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