Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes KWL.
Ecclesiastes 1.
1 The words of “Qohelét” ben David, king of Jerusalem:
2 “Vapor of vapors,” says Qohlelét. “Vapor of vapors. It’s all vapor.
3 What profit is all the trouble of humanity, laboring under the sun?”
Ecclesiastes 3.
18 I meditated about the condition of Adam’s children—
how God purifies them by showing them what animals they are.
19 Dumb luck to Adam’s children; dumb luck to an animal.
Dumb luck to one and all.
Like death. This dies, that dies.
Spirits in one and all; Adam with no advantage over animals. It’s all vapor.
20 They all go to one place:
All come from the dust, all return to dust.
21 Who knows whether Adam’s children’s spirits go up to heaven,
whereas animal spirits go down to the underworld?
22 I see nothing good in this. Enjoy your work, Adam: That’s your lot in life.
Who can show him the future?
Ecclesiastes 7.
10 Don’t say, “Why were the old days better than these days?”
You don’t ask this question out of wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 9.
5 For the living are aware they die—and the dead don’t know anything.
They never again earn wages. Their memory is forgotten.
6 Their love, their hate, their jealousy—already gone.
Nothing more of their portion, of anything which they did under the sun.
11 I came back. I saw this under the sun:
The fastest don’t win the race. The veterans don’t win the battle.
Even the wise don’t earn bread. Even the intelligent don’t get rich.
Even the experts fall out of favor. Dumb luck happens to them all.
12 More: Humanity doesn’t know the future,
like fish caught in a dragnet, like birds caught in trap,
like human children in a rough time which suddenly fell on them.