Ecclesiastes 1:4-8

⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

⁶ The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

⁷ All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

⁸ All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

Generations (v.4) — People are born and people die but the earth stays the same. This shows the brevity of life.

The sun “hurries” back to where it rises (v.5). To Solomon, it seemed even the sun itself was always pushing to achieve but never accomplishing anything.

The wind (v.6) and the waters (v.7) always seem to be going somewhere but ultimately don’t get anywhere they haven’t been time and time before.

Solomon uses the sun, wind, and streams to symbolize how man is always trying to accomplish something but only repeats himself constantly. There is no completion or satisfaction. In the end, all the fervor and bluster only causes weariness (v.8).

The eye and the ear (v.8) are tyrants, which no man can satisfy, and which, in continually demanding novelties, thereby declare there is nothing new. — Williams, page 440.