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Ecclesiastes 9:7-9 (Listen)

Enjoy Life with the One You Love

7 Go, keat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

8 lLet your garments be always white. Let not moil be lacking on your head.

9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your nvain1 life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your oportion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

Footnotes

[1] 9:9 The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath” (see note on 1:2)

Ecclesiastes 1 (Listen)

All Is Vanity

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

2 cVanity2 of vanities, says athe Preacher,

cvanity of vanities! dAll is vanity.

3 eWhat fdoes man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but gthe earth remains forever.

5 hThe sun rises, and the sun goes down,

and hastens3 to the place where it rises.

6 iThe wind blows to the south

and goes around to the north;

around and around goes the wind,

and on its circuits the wind returns.

7 All jstreams run to the sea,

but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

there they flow again.

8 All things are full of weariness;

a man cannot utter it;

kthe eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear filled with hearing.

9 lWhat has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there a thing of which it is said,

“See, this is new”?

It has been malready

in the ages before us.

11 There is no nremembrance of former things,4

nor will there be any remembrance

of later things5 yet to be

among those who come after.

The Vanity of Wisdom

12 I othe Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I papplied my heart6 to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy qbusiness that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is rvanity7 and a striving after wind.8

15 sWhat is crooked cannot be made straight,

and what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great twisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I uapplied my heart to know wisdom and to know vmadness and folly. I perceived that this also is but ra striving after wind.

18 For win much wisdom is much vexation,

and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Footnotes

[1] 1:1 Or Convener, or Collector; Hebrew Qoheleth (so throughout Ecclesiastes)
[2] 1:2 The Hebrew term hebel, translated vanity or vain, refers concretely to a “mist,” “vapor,” or “mere breath,” and metaphorically to something that is fleeting or elusive (with different nuances depending on the context). It appears five times in this verse and in 29 other verses in Ecclesiastes
[3] 1:5 Or and returns panting
[4] 1:11 Or former people
[5] 1:11 Or later people
[6] 1:13 The Hebrew term denotes the center of one's inner life, including mind, will, and emotions
[7] 1:14 The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath” (see note on 1:2)
[8] 1:14 Or a feeding on wind; compare Hosea 12:1 (also in Ecclesiastes 1:17; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 6, 16; 6:9)