This eBook was produced by David Widger
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgiaand Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.
Translated from the Latin Vulgate
Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek,and Other Editions in Divers Languages
THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610
and
THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582
With Annotations
The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared withthe Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard ChallonerA.D. 1749-1752
This Book is called Ecclesiastes, or The Preacher, (in Hebrew,Coheleth,) because in it, Solomon, as an excellent preacher, settethforth the vanity of the things of this world: to withdraw the hearts andaffections of men from such empty toys.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 1
The vanity of all temporal things.
1:1. The words of Ecclesiastes, the son of David, king of Jerusalem.
1:2. Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes: vanity of vanities, and allis vanity.
1:3. What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under thesun?
1:4. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but theearth standeth for ever.
1:5. The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: andthere rising again,
1:6. Maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: thespirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth tohis circuits.
1:7. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow:unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again.
1:8. All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word. The eye isnot filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing.
1:9. What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is itthat hath been done? the same that shall be done.
1:10. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say:Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages thatwere before us.
1:11. There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of thosethings which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance withthem that shall be in the latter end.
1:12. I Ecclesiastes was king over Israel in Jerusalem,
1:13. And I proposed in my mind to seek and search out wisely concerningall things that are done under the sun. This painful occupation hath Godgiven to the children of men, to be exercised therein.
1:14. I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold allis vanity, and vexation of spirit.
1:15. The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools isinfinite.
1:16. I have spoken in my heart, saying: Behold I am become great, andhave gone beyond all in wisdom, that were before me in Jerusalem: and mymind hath contemplated many things wisely, and I have learned.
1:17. And I have given my heart to know prudence, and learning, anderrors, and folly: and I have perceived that in these also there waslabour