Ecclesiastes 1:9-18 ▼

9 What [is] that which has been? It [is] that which is, and what [is] that which has been done? It [is] that which is done, and there is not an entirely new thing under the sun.

10 There is a thing of which [one] says: “See this, it [is] new!” Already it has been in the ages that were before us!

11 There is not a remembrance of former [generations]; and also of the latter that are, there is no remembrance of them with those that are at the last.

12 I, a preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 And I have given my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that has been done under the heavens. It [is] a sad travail God has given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.

14 I have seen all the works that have been done under the sun, and behold, the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit!

15 A crooked thing [one] is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered.

16 I spoke with my heart, saying, “I, behold, have magnified and added wisdom above everyone who has been before me at Jerusalem, and my heart has seen wisdom and knowledge abundantly.

17 And I give my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I have known that even this [is] distress of spirit;

18 for in abundance of wisdom [is] abundance of sadness, and he who adds knowledge adds pain.”