“One generation passeth away, and another generation commeth: but the earth abideth for euer.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
[One] generation passeth away, and [another] generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
- King James Version
A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever.
- New American Standard Version (1995)
One generation goeth, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever.
- American Standard Version (1901)
One generation goes and another comes; but the earth is for ever.
- Basic English Bible
[One] generation passeth away, and [another] generation cometh, but the earth standeth for ever.
- Darby Bible
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
- Webster's Bible
One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever.
- World English Bible
A generation is going, and a generation is coming, and the earth to the age is standing.
- Youngs Literal Bible
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; and the earth abideth for ever.
- Jewish Publication Society Bible
Wesley's Notes for Ecclesiastes 1:4
1:4 Passeth - Men continue but for one, and that a short age, and then they leave all their possessions, and therefore they cannot be happy here, because happiness must needs be unchangeable and eternal; or else the certain knowledge of the approaching loss of all these things will rob a man of solid contentment in them. Abideth - Through all successive generations of men; and therefore man is more mutable than the very earth upon which he stands, and which, together with all the comforts which he enjoyed in it, he leaves behind to be possessed by others.