1. The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2. “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher,“Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”
3. What benefit do people get from all the effortwhich they expend on earth?
4. A generation comes and a generation goes,but the earth remains the same through the ages.
5. The sun rises and the sun sets;it hurries away to a place from which it rises again.
6. The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north;round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns.
7. All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full,and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again.
8. All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it:The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing.