(3) What real value is there for a person
In all the gains s/he makes beneath the sun? (4) One generation goes, another comes,
But the earth remains the same forever. (5) The sun rises, and the sun sets—
And glides back to where it rises. (6) Southward blowing,
Turning northward,
Ever turning blows the wind;
On its rounds the wind returns. (7) All streams flow into the sea,
Yet the sea is never full;
To the place [from] which they flow
The streams flow back again.dAccording to popular belief, through tunnels; so Targum and Rashi. (8) All such things are wearisome:
No man can ever state them;
The eye never has enough of seeing,
Nor the ear enough of hearing. (9) Only that shall happen
Which has happened,
Only that occur
Which has occurred;
There is nothing new
Beneath the sun!
(10) Sometimes there is a phenomenon of which they say, “Look, this one is new!”—it occurred long since, in ages that went by before us. (11) The earlier ones are not remembered; so too those that will occur later eLit. “will not be remembered like…” For ‘im meaning “like,” cf. 2.16; 7.11; Job 9.26.will no more be remembered than-e those that will occur at the very end.
(3) If the clouds are filled, they will pour down rain on the earth; and ”if a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will stay where it falls.-a (4) If one watches the wind, he will never sow; and if one observes the clouds, he will never reap. (5) Just as you do not know how the lifebreath passes intobSo many mss. and Targum; most mss. read “like.” the limbs within the womb of the pregnant woman, so you cannot foresee the actions of God, who causes all things to happen.
(18) So I decided, as regards humans, to dissociate them [from] the divine beings and to face the fact that they are beasts. (19) For in respect of the fate of humanity and the fate of beast, they have one and the same fate: as the one dies so dies the other, and both have the same lifebreath; man has no superiority over beast, since both amount to nothing. (20) Both go to the same place; both came from dust and both return to dust. (21) Who knows if a man’s lifebreath does rise upward and if a beast’s breath does sink down into the earth?