Ecclesiastes 1:3
What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun?
JPS TaNaKH 1917
In The King James Version
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
In Context
2Vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
4One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; and the earth abideth for ever.
Cross References
Ecclesiastes 2:11Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:22For what hath a man of all his labour, and of the striving of his heart, wherein he laboureth under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 4:3but better than they both is he that hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 5:16(5-15) And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go; and what profit hath he that he laboureth for the wind?
Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 8:15So I commended mirth, that a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry, and that this should accompany him in his labour all the days of his life which God hath given him under the sun.
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 →