Parallel Bible results for "ecclesiastes 1"

Ecclesiastes 1

The Complete Jewish Bible CJB

1 The words of Kohelet the son of David, king in Yerushalayim:

2 Pointless! Pointless! - says Kohelet -Utterly meaningless! Nothing matters!

3 What does a person gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

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

5 The sun rises, the sun sets; then it speeds to its place and rises there.

6 The wind blows south, then it turns north; the wind blows all around and keeps returning to its rounds.

7 All the rivers flow to the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers flow, there they keep on flowing.

8 Everything is wearisome, more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, the ear not filled up with hearing.

9 What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there something of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It existed already in the ages before us.

11 No one remembers the people of long ago; and those to come will not be remembered by those who come after them.

12 I, Kohelet, have been king over Isra'el in Yerushalayim.

13 I wisely applied myself to seek out and investigate everything done under heaven. What a bothersome task God has given humanity to keep us occupied!

14 I have seen all the activities that are done under the sun, and it's all pointless, feeding on wind.

15 What is crooked can't be straightened; what is not there can't be counted.

16 I said to myself, "Look, I have acquired much wisdom, more than anyone ruling Yerushalayim before me."Yes, I experienced a great deal of wisdom and knowledge;

17 yet when I applied myself to understanding wisdom and knowledge, as well as stupidity and folly, I came to see that this too was merely feeding on wind.

18 For in much wisdom is much grief; the more knowledge, the more suffering.

The Message Bible MSG

1 These are the words of the Quester, David's son and king in Jerusalem:

2 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That's what the Quester says.] There's nothing to anything - it's all smoke.

3 What's there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?

4 One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes - it's business as usual for old planet earth.

5 The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again - the same old round.

6 The wind blows south, the wind blows north. Around and around and around it blows, blowing this way, then that - the whirling, erratic wind.

7 All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea never fills up. The rivers keep flowing to the same old place, and then start all over and do it again.

8 Everything's boring, utterly boring - no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear.

9 What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There's nothing new on this earth. Year after year it's the same old thing.

10 Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"? Don't get excited - it's the same old story.

11 Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody'll remember them either. Don't count on being remembered.

12 Call me "the Quester." I've been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there's not much to write home about. God hasn't made it easy for us.

14 I've seen it all and it's nothing but smoke - smoke, and spitting into the wind.

15 Life's a corkscrew that can't be straightened, A minus that won't add up.

16 I said to myself, "I know more and I'm wiser than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I've stockpiled wisdom and knowledge."

17 What I've finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless - nothing but spitting into the wind.

18 Much learning earns you much trouble. The more you know, the more you hurt.