All Is Vanity

¹The words of the Preacher,1 the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

²Vanity2 of vanities, says the Preacher,

vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

³What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

⁴A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but the earth remains forever.

⁵The sun rises, and the sun goes down,

and hastens3 to the place where it rises.

⁶The wind blows to the south

and goes around to the north;

around and around goes the wind,

and on its circuits the wind returns.

⁷All streams run to the sea,

but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

there they flow again.

⁸All things are full of weariness;

a man cannot utter it;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear filled with hearing.

⁹What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰Is there a thing of which it is said,

“See, this is new”?

It has been already

in the ages before us.

¹¹There is no remembrance of former things,4

nor will there be any remembrance

of later things5 yet to be

among those who come after.

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