Ecclesiastes 1:2
“Everything passes—it's so temporary! It's all so hard to understand!” says the Teacher.
Free Bible Version
In The King James Version
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
In Context
1Here are the words of the Teacher, the king of Jerusalem, David's son.
3What benefit do you get for slaving away in this life?
Cross References
Psalms 39:5Just look at the tiny amount of days you have given me! In your eyes my whole lifetime is like nothing. Our lives here are just a breath… Selah.
Psalms 144:4Humanity is like a breath; their lives are like a passing shadow.
Ecclesiastes 2:11But when I thought about what I had worked so hard to achieve, everything I'd done, it was so short-lived—as significant as someone trying to catch the wind. There really is no enduring benefit here on earth.
Ecclesiastes 2:17So I ended up feeling disgusted with life because everything that happens here on earth is so distressing. It's so incomprehensible, like trying to control the wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:21For you can work wisely, knowledgably, and with skill—and who benefits? Someone who hasn't worked for it! This is both frustrating and totally unjust!
Ecclesiastes 2:26To those who are good, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But to the sinner God gives the task of gathering and collecting wealth, only to hand it over to someone who pleases God. This also shows how fleeting life is, and hard to understand—like trying to understand how the wind blows.
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 →