The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 These are the words of the Quester, David's son and king in Jerusalem:
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These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem.
2 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That's what the Quester says.] There's nothing to anything - it's all smoke.
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“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
3 What's there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
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What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?
4 One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes - it's business as usual for old planet earth.
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Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.
5 The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again - the same old round.
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The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.
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.
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The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.
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.
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Rivers 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.
8 Everything's boring, utterly boring - no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear.
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Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
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.
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History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
10 Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"? Don't get excited - it's the same old story.
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Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.
11 Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody'll remember them either. Don't count on being remembered.
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We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
12 Call me "the Quester." I've been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
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I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived 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.
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I 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.
14 I've seen it all and it's nothing but smoke - smoke, and spitting into the wind.
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I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.
15 Life's a corkscrew that can't be straightened, A minus that won't add up.
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What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered.
16 I said to myself, "I know more and I'm wiser than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I've stockpiled wisdom and knowledge."
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I 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.”
17 What I've finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless - nothing but spitting into the wind.
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So 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.
18 Much learning earns you much trouble. The more you know, the more you hurt.
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The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.