2Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity.

3What advantage [is] to man by all his labor that he labors at under the sun?

4A generation is going, and a generation is coming, and the earth is standing for all time.

5Also, the sun has risen, and the sun has gone in, and to its place panting it is rising there.

6Going to the south, and turning around to the north, turning around, turning around, the wind is going, and by its circuits the wind has returned.

7All the streams are going to the sea, and the sea is not full; to a place to where the streams are going, there they are turning back to go.

8All these things are wearying; a man is not able to speak, the eye is not satisfied by seeing, nor is the ear filled from hearing.

9What [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.

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

11There 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.

12I, a preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And 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. 14I have seen all the works that have been done under the sun, and behold, the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit! 15A crooked thing [one] is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered.

16I 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. 17And I give my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I have known that even this [is] distress of spirit; 18for in abundance of wisdom [is] abundance of sadness, and he who adds knowledge adds pain.”