The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Ecclesiastes
|
Chapter 1
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1
Words of the Spokesman, king David’s son, that reigned once at Jerusalem.

2
A shadow’s shadow, he tells us, a shadow’s shadow; a world of shadows!
3
How is man the better for all this toiling of his, here under the sun?
4
Age succeeds age, and the world goes on unaltered.
5
Sun may rise and sun may set, but ever it goes back and is reborn.
6
Round to the south it moves, round to the north it turns; the wind, too, though it makes the round of the world, goes back to the beginning of its round at last.
7
All the rivers flow into the sea, yet never the sea grows full; back to their springs they find their way, and must be flowing still.
8
Weariness, all weariness; who shall tell the tale? Eye looks on unsatisfied; ear listens, ill content.
9
Ever that shall be that ever has been, that which has happened once shall happen again;
10
there can be nothing new, here under the sun. Never man calls a thing new, but it is something already known to the ages that went before us;
11
only we have no record of older days. So, believe me, the fame of to-morrow’s doings will be forgotten by the men of a later time.

12
I was a king in my day, I, the Spokesman; Israel my realm, Jerusalem my capital.
13
And it was my resolve to search deep and find out the meaning of all that men do, here under the sun; all that curse of busy toil which God has given to the sons of Adam for their task.
14
All that men do beneath the sun I marked, and found it was but frustration and lost labour, all of it;
15
there was no curing men’s cross-grained nature, no reckoning up their follies.

16
I at least (so I flattered myself) have risen above the rest; a king so wise never reigned at Jerusalem; here is a mind has reflected much, and much learned.
17
And therewith I applied my mind to a new study; what meant wisdom and learning, what meant ignorance and folly? And I found that this too was labour lost;
18
much wisdom, much woe; who adds to learning, adds to the load we bear.