1 The words of Kohelet , son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Futile! Futile! says Kohelet. Completely meaningless! Everything is futile!
3 What does a person gain in all his labor that he toils under the sun?
4 A generation comes, and a generation goes, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to the place it rises.
6 The wind goes toward the south, and circles around to the north. Round and round it swirls about, ever returning to its circuits.
7 All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they go again.