Ecclesiastes 1

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Ecclesiastes chapter one opens with the words of the Teacher, the son of David and king in Jerusalem, who declares that everything is utterly futile. He illustrates this endless repetition through the cycles of nature, noting that generations pass while the earth remains, the sun rises and sets, the wind circulates, and rivers constantly flow into the sea without filling it. The Teacher observes that past events and deeds repeat themselves, leaving no new things under the sun and ensuring that previous and future generations are forgotten. Identifying himself as the former king over Israel in Jerusalem, he recounts applying his mind through wisdom to explore and observe everything done under heaven. He concludes that this human task is burdensome and that pursuing wisdom, knowledge, madness, and folly ultimately results in sorrow and grief.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: ²“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!” ³What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun? ⁴Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. ⁵The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises. ⁶The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course. ⁷All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow. ⁸All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing. ⁹What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰Is there a case where one can say, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us. ¹¹There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after. ¹²I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them! ¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. ¹⁵What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted. ¹⁶I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind. ¹⁸For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases.

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.