Ecclesiastes 1:3-13

3What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

5The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

6The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

7All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

8All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

10Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

11No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

Wisdom Is Meaningless 12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!