Ecclesiastes 1:9

Ecc. 1:9. "The thing that hath been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun," etc. It appears by the connection of these words with what went before, that the design of the wise man is here to signify that the world, though it be so full of labor, mankind, from generation to generation, so constantly, laboriously, unweariedly pursuing after happiness and satisfaction, on some perfect good wherein they may rest; yet they never obtain it, nor make any progress towards it. Particular persons while they live, though they spend their whole lives in pursuit, do but go round and round, and never obtain that satisfying good they seek after. "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing," verse Ecclesiastes 1:8. And as one generation passeth away, and another comes (verse Ecclesiastes 1:4) the successive generations constantly laboring and pursuing after some good wherein satisfaction and rest may be obtained, not being discouraged by the disappointment of former generations, yet they make no progress, they attain to nothing new beyond their forefathers, they only go round in the same circle, as the sun restlessly repeats the same course that it used to do in former ages, and as the wind and water after their running and flowing have got no further than they were formerly; for to the place from whence they came, they constantly return again; and as the sea is no fuller now than it used to be in former ages, though the rivers have all the while with constant and indefatigable labor and continual expense of their waters, been striving to fill it up. That which goes round in a link let it continue moving never so swiftly, and never so long, makes no progress, comes to nothing new.

Ecc. 2:16