From the Preacher...

 AND NOW:  a walk through the book of Ecclesiastes with visual stimulus provided by the film Waking Life.

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem... 1:1

"Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." 1:2

All the rivers flow into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full.

To the place where the rivers flow,

There they flow again. 1:7

All things are wearisome:

Man is not able to tell it.  1:8

There is no remembrance of earlier things;

And also of the later things

which will occur,

There will be for them no remembrance

Among those who will come

later still. 1:11

And I set my mind to know wisdom 

and to know madness and folly; 

I realized that this also is striving after wind. 

Because in much wisdom there is much grief, 

and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain. 1:17-18

I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine 

while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, 

until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do 

under heaven the few years of their lives. 2:3

A time to search and a time to give up as lost... 3:6

I know that everything God does will remain forever; 

there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take it from it, 

for God has so worked that men should fear Him. 

That which is has been already and that which will be has already been,

for God seeks what has passed by. 3:14-16

As one dies so dies the other; 

indeed, they all have the same breath

and there is no advantage for man over beast,

for all is vanity. 

All go to the same place. 

All came from the dust 

and all return to the dust. 3:19-20

But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, 

who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun. 4:3

For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. 5:7

for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity... 6:4

All a man's labor is for his mouth 

and yet the appetite is not satisfied. 6:7

For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime,

during the few years of his futile life?

He will spend them like a shadow.

For who can tell a man what will be 

after him under the sun? 6:12

It is better to go to a house of mourning

than to go to a house of feasting,

because that is the end of every man,

and the living takes it to heart.  7:2

Man will not discover 

anything that will be after him. 7:14

Indeed, there is not a righteous man

on earth who continually does good

and who never sins. 7:20

What has been is remote

and exceedingly mysterious.

Who can discover it? 7:23

Behold, I have found only this,

that God made men upright,

but they have sought out many devices. 7:29

So I commended pleasure, 

for there is nothing good for a man

under the sun except

to eat and to drink and to be merry,

and this will stand by him 

in his toils throughout 

the days of his life

which God has given him

under the sun. 8:15

When I gave my heart to know wisdom

and to see the task which has been done on the earth,

and I saw every work of God,

I concluded that man cannot discover the work

which has been done under the sun.

Even though man should seek laboriously,

he will not discover; 

and though the wise man should say,

"I know," he cannot discover. 8:16-17

Man does not know 

whether it will be love or hatred;

anything awaits him. 9:1

Whatever your hand finds to do,

do it with all your might; 

for there is no activity or planning

or knowledge or wisdom in the ground

where you are going. 9:10

Just as you do not know the path of the wind

and how bones are formed in the womb 

of a pregnant woman, so you do not

know the activity of 

God who makes

all things. 11:5

Indeed, if a man should live many years,

let him rejoice in them all, 

and let him remember the days of darkness, 

for they will be many.

Everything that is to come will be futility. 11:8

Follow the impulses of your heart and the desires

of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you 

to judgment for all these things. 11:9

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is:

fear God and keep His commandments,

because this applies to every person.

For God will bring every act to judgment,

everything which is hidden, 

whether it is good or evil. 12:13