ECCLESIA STESThese are the words of the Teacher, King Dav id’s son, who ruled inJerusalem.“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generationscome and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises andthe sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, andthen turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Riversrun into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again tothe rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyonddescription. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matterhow much we hear, we are not content.History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing underthe sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” Butactually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember whatwe are doing now.I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. I devoted myselfto search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything beingdone under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existenceto the human race. I observed everything going on under the sun, andreally, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.What is wrong cannot be made right.What is missing cannot be recovered.I 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.”So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But Ilearned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.253
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