| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: | 1These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem. Everything Is Meaningless |
| 2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!” | 2“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” |
| 3What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun? | 3What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? |
| 4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. | 4Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. |
| 5The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises. | 5The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. |
| 6The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course. | 6The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. |
| 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. | 7Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. |
| 8All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing. | 8Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. |
| 9What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. | 9History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. |
| 10Is there a case where one can say, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us. | 10Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. |
| 11There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after. | 11We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now. The Teacher Speaks: The Futility of Wisdom |
| 12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. | 12I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. |
| 13And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them! | 13I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race. |
| 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. | 14I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind. |
| 15What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted. | 15What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered. |
| 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.” | 16I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” |
| 17So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind. | 17So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind. |
| 18For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases. | 18The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow. |
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