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
