Chapter 1

1 The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher.⁠ “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!” 3 What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth? 4 A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains the same through the ages.⁠ 5 The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries away to a place from which it rises again.⁠ 6 The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north; round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns.⁠ 7 All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full, and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again. 8 All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing. 9 What exists now is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing truly new on earth. 10 Is there anything about which someone can say, “Look at this! It is new”? It was already done long ago, before our time. 11 No one remembers the former events, nor will anyone remember the events that are yet to happen; they will not be remembered by the future generations. 12 I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.⁠ 13 I decided to carefully and thoroughly examine all that has been accomplished on earth. I concluded: God has given people a burdensome task that keeps them occupied. 14 I reflected on everything that is accomplished by man on earth, and I concluded: Everything he has accomplished is futile—like chasing the wind!⁠ 15 What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be supplied. 16 I thought to myself, “I have become much wiser than any of my predecessors who ruled over Jerusalem; I have acquired much wisdom and knowledge.” 17 So I decided to discern the benefit of wisdom and knowledge over foolish behavior and ideas; however, I concluded that even this endeavor is like trying to chase the wind. 18 For with great wisdom comes great frustration; whoever increases his knowledge merely increases his heartache.

Texts in conversation

Compare Ecclesiastes 1:6 and 3 Enoch 23:17

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

Summary

In Ecclesiastes, the wind continually follows an ordered path, returning in a circuit. In 3 Enoch, this wind travels from the cherubim through the sun to earth, interpreting Ecclesiastes to describe a path through all of heaven and earth.

Passages

Ecclesiastes 1:6

Hebrew Bible

6 The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north; round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns. 7 All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full, and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again. 8 All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing. 9 What exists now is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing truly new on earth.

300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ecclesiastes

3 Enoch 23:17

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch

17 And where do all these winds go? The Scripture teaches us, that they go out from under the wings of the Kerubim and descend on the globe of the sun, as it is written (Eccl. i. 6): "The wind goes toward the south and turns about to the north; it turns about continually in its course and the wind returns again to its circuits". And from the globe of the sun they return and descend upon [the rivers and the seas, upon] the mountains and upon the hills, as it is written (Am. iv. 13): "For lo, he that forms the mountains and creates the wind".

400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... Interestingly, too, the lengthy passage that describes the winds (3 Enoch 23, §35)59 does not make use of the metrological imagery that I noted to be sig- nificant in the Parables; rather, it brings together an array of biblical texts that speak of the winds and combines their imagery. In fact, there is only one point in 3 Enoch where scales/balance imagery is used, in 18:20 (§27): Why is his name called Šoqedḥozi? Because he weighs men’s merits in scales in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be he. So, while there appears to be more entanglement with the content of Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch than is seen in the biblical material or even in b.Ḥagigah, ...”

Grant Macaskill, The Entangled Enoch: 2 Enoch and the Cultures of Late Antiquity (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill BV, 2024), 138.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Ecclesiastes12 chapters

Compare Ecclesiastes 1:6 and 3 Enoch 23:17

Summary

Passages

Ecclesiastes 1:6

3 Enoch 23:17

References

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