Ecclesiastes · 18 verses
Ecclesiastes 1
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The rivers pour themselves into the sea, the sea refuses to fill, and the rivers go back to begin the business again.
The world goes roundvv. 1–11
The Teacher opens with a verdict so emphatic it echoes itself: everything is futile. Generations pass while the earth remains; the sun hurries back, the wind wheels about, and the rivers repeatedly return to their source without ever filling the sea. The eye keeps looking, the ear keeps listening, and still nothing is satisfied. Even novelty has already happened somewhere before, while the people who came before—and those who come after—slip out of remembrance.
The Teacher investigates wisdomvv. 12–18
The Teacher then turns from the circling world to his own grand experiment. As king over Israel in Jerusalem, he sets his mind to examine everything done under heaven by wisdom, only to call the assignment a miserable task laid upon the sons of men by God. He has seen all that is done under the sun and finds it a pursuit of the wind. He studies wisdom, madness, and folly, and discovers that wisdom has its own peculiar harvest: the more it grows, the more sorrow and grief arrive with it.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Eccl 1:1These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:
Eccl 1:2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
Eccl 1:3What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?
Eccl 1:4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
Eccl 1:5The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises.
Eccl 1:6The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course.
Eccl 1:7All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow.
Eccl 1:8All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing.
Eccl 1:9What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
Eccl 1:10Is there a case where one can say, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us.
Eccl 1:11There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after.
Eccl 1:13And 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!
Eccl 1:14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
Eccl 1:15What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
Eccl 1:16I 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.”
Eccl 1:17So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.
Eccl 1:18For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 176 passages were voted onto 18 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 9Ecclesiastes 3:15What exists has already been, and what will be has already been, for God will call to account what has passed.
- 4Psalms 104:5He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.
- 2Psalms 144:4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- 18Job 28:28And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
- 18Ecclesiastes 12:12–13And by these, my son, be further warned: There is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.
- 2Romans 8:20For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope
- 9Ecclesiastes 6:10Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.
- 14Ecclesiastes 2:11Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
- 181 Corinthians 3:18–20Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.
- 2Ecclesiastes 5:10He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.
- 2Psalms 39:5–6You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- 3Ecclesiastes 3:9What does the worker gain from his toil?
- 2Ecclesiastes 12:8“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”
- 3Ecclesiastes 5:16This too is a grievous affliction: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?
- 3Ecclesiastes 2:22For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?
- 8Proverbs 27:20Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
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