King James VersionEcclesiastes1

Ecclesiastes

1 The words of the Preach­er, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Van­i­ty of van­i­ties, saith the Preach­er, van­i­ty of van­i­ties; all is van­i­ty. 3 What prof­it hath a man of all his labour which he taketh un­der the sun? 4 One gen­er­a­tion pas­seth away, and another gen­er­a­tion cometh: but the earth abideth for ev­er. 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. 6 The wind goeth to­ward the south, and tur­neth about unto the north; it whirleth about con­tin­u­al­ly, and the wind re­tur­neth again ac­cord­ing to his cir­cuits. 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thith­er they re­turn again. 8 All things are full of labour; man can­not ut­ter it: the eye is not sat­is­fied with see­ing, nor the ear filled with hear­ing. 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing un­der the sun. 10 Is there any thing where­of it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been al­ready of old time, which was be­fore us. 11 There is no re­mem­brance of for­mer things; nei­ther shall there be any re­mem­brance of things that are to come with those that shall come af­ter. 12 I the Preach­er was king over Is­rael in Jerusalem. 13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wis­dom con­cern­ing all things that are done un­der heav­en: this sore tra­vail hath God giv­en to the sons of man to be ex­er­cised there­with. 14 I have seen all the works that are done un­der the sun; and, be­hold, all is van­i­ty and vex­a­tion of spir­it. 15 That which is crooked can­not be made straight: and that which is want­ing can­not be num­bered. 16 I com­muned with mine own heart, say­ing, Lo, I am come to great es­tate, and have got­ten more wis­dom than all they that have been be­fore me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great ex­pe­ri­ence of wis­dom and knowl­edge. 17 And I gave my heart to know wis­dom, and to know mad­ness and fol­ly: I per­ceived that this also is vex­a­tion of spir­it. 18 For in much wis­dom is much grief: and he that in­creaseth knowl­edge in­creaseth sor­row.