Ecclesiastes 1:1-8

Title

1:1 The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:

Introduction: Utter Futility

1:2 “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher,

“Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”

Futility Illustrated from Nature

1:3 What benefit do people get from all the effort

which they expend on earth?

1:4 A generation comes and a generation goes,

but the earth remains the same through the ages.

1:5 The sun rises and the sun sets;

it hurries away to a place from which it rises again.

1:6 The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north;

round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns.

1:7 All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full,

and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again.

1:8 All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it:

The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing.