Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
A Conservative Version
In The King James Version
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
In Context
1The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
3What profit has man from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?
Cross References
Psalms 39:5Behold, thou have made my days [as] handbreadths, and my life-time is as nothing before thee. Surely every man at his best condition is altogether vanity. Selah.
Psalms 144:4Man is like vanity. His days are as a shadow that passes away.
Ecclesiastes 2:11Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous to me. For all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:21For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skillfulness, yet he shall leave it to a man who has not labored in it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.
Ecclesiastes 2:26For to the man who pleases him [God] gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
Ecclesiastes We are still among Solomon's happy men, his happy servants, that stood continually before him to hear his wisdom; and they are the choicest of all the dictates of his wisdom, such as were more immediately given by divine inspiration, that are here transmitted to us, not to be heard, as by them, but once, and then liable to be mistaken or forgotten, and by repetition to lose their beauty, but to be read, reviewed, revolved, and had in everlasting remembrance. The account we have of Solomon's apostasy… Read the whole commentary →