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Wenesday, 13 November 2024 - Sant' Agostina (Livia) Pietrantoni ( Letture di oggi)

Ecclesiastes/Qohelet 1


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1Composition of Qoheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem.2Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile!3What profit can we show for al our toil, toiling under the sun?4A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever.5The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises.6Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; then back to its circling goesthe wind.7Into the sea go al the rivers, and yet the sea is never fil ed, and stil to their goal the rivers go.8Al things are wearisome. No one can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fil ofhearing.9What was, wil be again, what has been done, wil be done again, and there is nothing new under thesun!10Take anything which people acclaim as being new: it existed in the centuries preceding us.11No memory remains of the past, and so it wil be for the centuries to come -- they will not beremembered by their successors.12I, Qoheleth, have reigned over Israel in Jerusalem.13Wisely I have applied myself to investigation and exploration of everything that happens under heaven.What a wearisome task God has given humanity to keep us busy!14I have seen everything that is done under the sun: how futile it al is, mere chasing after the wind!15What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is not there cannot be counted.16I thought to myself: I have acquired a greater stock of wisdom than anyone before me in Jerusalem. Imyself have mastered every kind of wisdom and science.17I have applied myself to understanding philosophy and science, stupidity and fol y, and I now realisethat all this too is chasing after the wind.18Much wisdom, much grief; the more knowledge, the more sorrow.