The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already
in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be among those who come after.
Comment: What does ‘vanity’ mean? – ‘not enduring’ ‘shadowy’ ‘pointless’ ‘passing’? Certainly we are given one view of how much of what seems very relevant to us. However, what we do or think doesn’t affect the world much! The passage ends by seeming to say that people don’t learn from history – they haven’t in the past and won’t in the future. Certainly it makes me feel as a very small dot on the surface of time and space! Is there more to the book than this?
Prayer: I am small, but what do You want of me, my God?
As I read it! 