Ecclesiastes 1 - Everything is Meaningless

The book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet in Hebrew) is generally regarded to have been written by Solomon, King David's son, who himself became king after his father. This book contain ramblings about the meaning to life.

Today we will start with the first chapter. Here's the verse by verse.


Ecclesiastes 1

1 The words of the Teacher (Preacher/Leader), son of David, king in Jerusalem:

[This is the reason this book is attributed to Solomon.]


2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

[In these first verses, the writer is lamenting the utter meaningless of life. As everything happens and everything passes, so too is man and his life here on earth.]


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

[Here Solomon seems to be lamenting that in this life, there will always be something to complain about. And that man can never get enough of anything, never will be content of anything.]


9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

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.

11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

[As this was written way back thousands of years ago, during that period of time when everything is the same and hardly anything new was invented. This really is a full blown legitimate complaint. What is interesting is that even in this day, when most of the developments in every aspect of life happened in the last 100-120 years, especially in the last 20-30 years when everyone can hardly keep up with every new innovation and new technology; most people still seem to be bored and still cannot get enough of anything, even every new thing.]


12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!

14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

[Here the writer stated he was King of Israel and as such, he can say that he has everything in his disposal, even resources to gain knowledge and wisdom. But still even with everything he has, he still finds all these as meaningless or an exercise in futility.]


15 What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge."

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.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

[Wow, all these may seem dark and hopeless, but the writer is giving insight to something not very many would be aware of. And he is merely saying that with all his riches, all his learning, all his quest for more riches and more knowledge and wisdom and even the pursuit of craziness and foolishness, all these have done nothing to convince him that any of these has sense.]