2 “Totally pointless,” says the leader.

“A complete waste of time. Everything’s worthless.”

3 What profit does humanity gain from all their hard work in this world?

4 Generations come, and generations go,

but the world just carries on going.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,

then rushes around to its place, rising there again.

6 Going to the south then around to the north,

the wind is going, changing, turning,

then it’s returning on its rounds.

7 All the rivers flow into the sea but it never gets full.

The place that the rivers are going to, they end up going there again.

8 Everything is wearisome—not even worth talking about.

The eyes never stop seeing,

and your ears never fill up with everything they hear.

9 Whatever that was in the past, it will be in the future,

and everything that’s happened before, will happen again.

There’s nothing new in this world.[fn]

10 If someone says, “Look at this—it’s new,”

well, it was already done long ago before we even got here.

11 Things that happened in the past get forgotten,

and the same will also happen for future events.

People in the future will be exactly the same.