Ecclesiastes 传道书01

1The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly¹ meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
3What does man gain from all his labor² at which he toils³ under the sun?
4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains⁴ forever.
5The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
8All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
10Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
11There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13I devoted⁵ myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!
14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
15What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
16I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge."
17Then I applied⁶ myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly⁷, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
18For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

1 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 toils   

网

参考例句：

• It did not declare him to be still in Mrs. Dorset's toils. 这并不表明他仍陷于多赛特夫人的情网。
• The thief was caught in the toils of law. 这个贼陷入了法网。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

6 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

7 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。