Is there anything of which it can be said,
“See this, it is new”?
It has already existed for [the vast] ages [of time recorded or unrecorded]
Which were before us.

So I became great and excelled more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me.

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being kept and hoarded by their owner to his own misery.

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

There is a meaningless and futile thing which is done on the earth: that is, there are righteous men whose gain is as though they were evil, and evil men whose gain is as though they were righteous. I say that this too is futility (meaningless, vain).