Translation
All the rivers run into the sea, and yet the sea is not full; the rivers return again to the place they come from.
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
The water cycle is an example of something mundane and repetitive. It is not special, rather it is common-place. Our lives are like that, nothing we accomplish is special, so get down off your high horse.
Footnotes
1: "come from"
The Hebrew says “come from,” however, “started from,” would sound better in English. There is an assumption here that people of Solomon’s day understood the water cycle. This is not a case of Solomon introducing something new and wonderful, but a matter of him using an example of something they already knew and were no longer amazed by.