Ecclesiastes 1:3
What profit hath a man of all his toil which he toil-eth under the sun?
Leeser Tanakh
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; but the earth endureth for ever.
Cross References
Ecclesiastes 2:11But when I turned myself [to look] on all my works that my hands had wrought, and on the toil that I had toiled to accomplish: then, behold, all was vanity and a torture of the spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:22For what doth a man obtain of all his toil, and of the torture of his heart, wherewith he toileth under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 4:3And as happier than both of them, him who hath not yet come into being, who hath not seen the evil-doing that is done under the sun.—
Ecclesiastes 5:16(5:15) And also this is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so must he go: and what profit hath he that hath toiled for the wind?
Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, the number of the days of his vain life, that he should spend them as a shadow? for who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 8:15Therefore do I praise joyfulness, that there is nothing better for man under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful; for this will adhere to him in his toil, during 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 →