A worn mattock and a goatskin water bag left leaning on a dry-stone terrace wall on a gray afternoon, old terraces climbing behind, no one in sight.

Everything is futile

Ecclesiastes 1

You worked hard all week. What do you have that will last?

18 verses≈ 3 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1Everything is futileThe Teacher states his caseChapter 1
2–6The searchPleasure, work, time, power, wealth
7–8What wisdom can and can't doNo one can find out what is coming
9–11Live while you liveDeath comes to all, so take the gift
12Remember your CreatorFear God and keep His commandments

Everything Is Futile

An old king in a dark-red robe, seen from behind, one hand on a stone rail at the top of palace steps, looking out over a small walled Jerusalem.

These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:

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The Teacher

“Futility of futilities,”

says the Teacher,

“futility of futilities!

Everything is futile!”

The Teacher

What does a man gain from all his labor,

at which he toils under the sun?

Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

A bare limestone ridge at first light, the sun just clearing a worn notch, a shepherd’s track running over it, long cold shadows.

The sun rises and the sun sets;

it hurries back to where it rises.

The wind blows southward,

then turns northward;

round and round it swirls,

ever returning on its course.

All the rivers flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full;

to the place from which the streams come,

there again they flow.

Question

Quick question

The book’s biggest word is one you can see on a cold morning.

What does the Hebrew word behind ‘futile’ picture?

The Teacher

All things are wearisome,

more than one can describe;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear content with hearing.

What has been will be again,

and what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

Is there a case where one can say,

“Look, this is new”?

It has already existed

in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance

of those who came before,

and those yet to come will not be remembered

by those who follow after.

With Wisdom Comes Sorrow

The Teacher

I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

A man’s weathered hand closing on a blowing stream of chaff, the chaff running out between his fingers against a pale sky.

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

What is crooked cannot be straightened,

and what is lacking cannot be counted.

The Teacher

Night on a flat palace roof in Jerusalem: Solomon sits awake alone on a low wooden bench beside a small clay oil lamp, his face turned toward the dark temple on its hill, under a calm, empty, starry sky.

I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”

So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.

0:19

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow,

and as knowledge grows, grief increases.

Pray

What can be kept

Ask God to make you honest about what won’t last. Pray for someone tired of the same round, the same work, the same week. Ask Him to show you what can be kept, and to teach you to look to Him for it.

You’ve experienced

Ecclesiastes 1

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A verse to carry with you

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

Ecclesiastes 1:9

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