1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
8 All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
7 comments:
Cheer up.
Sounds like a paean to nihilism.
Cheer up.
To the contrary, reading Ecclesiastes when one is feeling a bit down in the dumps is invariably an uplifting experience.
(And much cheaper than Halcyon.... moreover, no prescription necessary, etc.)
I'd actually recommend mass distribution of Ecclesiastes in Britain in the days ahead. (On the other hand, would that be legal in Britain, these days?)
Now that is cheering.
Yes, well, it's an "and-I-thought-I-had-problems" kind of thing.
As I said, tremendously uplifting...
Some bed-time reading (guaranteed to put you asleep swiftly and relatively painlessly).
(My favorite genre, actually.)
How could any veteran blogger omit the last seven verses, which conclude with:
17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
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