All Toil is Profitless and Repetitious

• 3 What does a person gain in all his toil with which he toils under the sun?
• 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth stands forever.
• 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down; to its place it hurries,[fn] and there it rises again.
• 6 The wind goes to the south and goes around to the north; around and around it goes, and on its circuit the wind returns.
• 7 All the streams flow to the sea, but the sea is never full;
• to the place where the streams flow,
  • there they continue to flow.
  • 8 All things toil continuously;[fn] no one can ever finish describing this.[fn]
• The eye is never[fn] satisfied with seeing,
  • and the ear is never[fn] filled with hearing.
  • 9 What has been—it is what will be; what has been done—it is what will be done;
    • there is nothing new under the sun.
  • 10 There is a thing of which it is said, “Look at this! This is new!” But it already existed in ages past before us.
  • 11 There is neither remembrance of former generations, nor will there be remembrance of future generations.