1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Ecclesiastes 1 - RWB Paraphrase (18 V) With Comments Go to top__ OR __Exit Comments Everything Is Futile 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" Says the Preacher."Everything is utterly meaningless!" 3 "What does man gain from all his toil under the sun?" 4 "Generations come and generations go, but the earth continues on." 5 "The sun rises and sets, and hastens to the place where it rises again." 6 "The wind blows south and then swirls around to the north on its circular course." 7 "The rivers flow into the sea and yet the sea is not full, and the rivers continue to flow." 8 "Man gets weary trying to think of everything. What the eye sees does not satisfy, nor the ear with what it hears." 9 "Whatever is, has already been. There is nothing new under the sun." 10 "No one can say, 'See, this is something new,' for it has already existed in the past." 11 "No one remembers the things from of old, and no one in the future will remember what is happening now."
12 "I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem."
13 "I set my mind to discover and explore by wisdom all that has been done under heaven. It is a difficult task with which God has afflicted the sons of men."
14 "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and they are all without meaning. It is like chasing the wind."
15 "What is twisted cannot be straightened. What is lacking cannot be counted."
16 "I said to myself, 'I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has experience great wisdom and knowledge.'"
17 "I set my mind to know wisdom, madness and folly, and realized that even this is striving after the wind."
18 "For in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain."
3 "I tried wine, and embraced folly, guiding myself with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives."
4 "I undertook great projects, building houses for myself and planting vineyards."
5 "I made gardens and parks and planted all manner of fruit trees in them."
6 "I made ponds to water the trees."
7 "I bought male and female slaves and had slaves born in my house. And I possessed larger flocks and herds than all who preceded me in Jerusalem."
8 "I amassed silver and gold besides kings and provinces as treasure. I had male and female singers and many concubines."
9 "I became greater than all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my wisdom remained with me."
10 "I had whatever I wanted and did not withhold any pleasure from myself, for my labor was my reward."
11 "I considered all my accomplishments and discovered it was all vanity, a striving after the wind, with no profit in any of it."
12 "So I thought about wisdom, madness and folly. What will the man do? Who will come after me, and do anything except what has already been done?"
13 "I saw that wisdom excels folly the same way light excels darkness."
14 "The wise man sees the light while the fool walks in darkness. And yet, I see that the same fate befalls them both."
15 "I said to myself, 'The fate of the fool is also my fate. Of what value is my great wisdom? Even this is vanity.'"
16 "For there is no lasting remembrance of either the wise man or the fool. They will both die and be forgotten."
17 "I came to hate life because everything is futility, like trying to catch the wind."
18 "I detested everything I had worked for, because someone after me would get it."
19 "Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? But he will be in charge of the fruit of my labor produced by my wisdom. This to is vanity."
20 "So I completely despaired of all my accomplishments."
21 "When a man has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then leaves it to one who has not labored for it, that too is vanity and a great evil."
22 "For what does a man get for all his labor and striving under the sun?"
23 "His days are filled with pain and at night his mind cannot rest. This too is vanity."
24 "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This is as God has planned,"
25 "for who can eat or have any enjoyment without Him?"
26 "To the man who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. So the amassing of wealth is also vanity, a striving after wind."
14 "I know that everything God does will remain forever, so that there is nothing to add to it or take away from it, for God has done this that men should fear Him."
15 "That which is to be has already been, and God will call the past to account."
16 "Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wrongdoing."
17 "I said to myself, God will judge both the righteous and the wicked, with time to consider every matter and deed."
18 "I said in my heart, God tests the sons of men, that they may see that they are like animals."
19 "For their fate is the same as the animals. Both have the same breath and both die. Man has no advantage over the beast. All is vanity."
COMMENT: The animals do not go to heaven when they die. Neither does man.
20 "All came from the dust and all return to the dust."
21 "Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?"
22 "I have seen that nothing is better for a man than to be happy in his own work, for that is his lot, and he has no way of knowing what will take place after he dies."
5 "The fool folds his hands and ruins himself."
6 "Better one handful with quietness than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind."
7 "And again, I saw vanity under the sun."
8 "There was a man without dependents, having neither son nor brother. Yet there was no end to all his labor. He was not satisfied with riches and never asked, "For whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?" This too is vanity and makes life grievous."
9 "Two are better than one because by working together they have a better return for their labor."
10 "For if either of them falls, the other will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is no one to help him up."
11 "And if two lie together they keep each other warm. When one is alone it is more difficult to stay warm."
12 "While one might be overpowered if he is alone, two can resist better. For the same reason, a cord of three strands is not easily broken."
13 "A poor yet wise child is better off than an old and foolish king who will no longer receive instruction."
14 "For he has come out of prison to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom."
15 "I have seen that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the king's successor, though he is a youth."
16 "There was no end of all the people over whom he was made king, yet those who come afterward will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and grasping for the wind."
6 "Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?"
7 "Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Instead, fear God."
COMMENT: The less words the better.
8 "If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not be surprised. For high officials watch over each other, and there are higher officials are over them."
9 "The increase from the land is taken by all, including the king who profits from the field."
10 "He who loves money will never have enough. Those who love wealth are never satisfied. This too is vanity."
11 "When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?"
12 "The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich man keeps him awake."
13 "I have seen a grievous evil under the sun. It is wealth hoarded to the owner's harm."
14 "When those riches are lost through a bad investment and he has fathered a son, then there was nothing to leave for an inheritance."
15 "A man is naked when he is born, and so he will be when he departs. In death there is nothing from his labor that he can take with him."
16 "This too is a grievous evil. As a man comes, so he departs. And what does he gain, since he has toiled for the wind?"
17 "All his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger."
18 "Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all his labor during the few years of life which God gives him. This is his reward."
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