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The Blue Letter Bible

Ecclesiastes 1 :: New International Version (NIV)

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Everything Is Meaningless

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:1

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:1 - The words of the Teacher,[fn] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:2

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:2 - “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:3

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:3 - What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:4

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:4 - Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:5

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:5 - The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:6

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:6 - The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:7

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:7 - All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:8

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:8 - All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:9

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:9 - What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:10

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:10 - Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:11

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:11 - No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

Wisdom Is Meaningless

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:12

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:12 - I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:13

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:13 - I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:14

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:14 - I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:15

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:15 - What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:16

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:16 - I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:17

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:17 - Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 1:18

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 1:18 - For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NIV Footnotes
Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12
NIV

HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.


See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

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Ecclesiastes Chapter 1 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras