Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity.
Literal Standard Version
In The King James Version
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
In Context
1Words of a preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
3What advantage [is] to man by all his labor that he labors at under the sun?
Cross References
Psalms 39:5Behold, You have made my days handbreadths, || And my age [is] as nothing before You, || Only, every man set up [is] all vanity. Selah.
Psalms 144:4Man has been like a breath, || His days [are] as a shadow passing by.
Ecclesiastes 2:11and I have looked on all my works that my hands have done, and on the labor that I have labored to do, and behold, the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit, and there is no advantage under the sun!
Ecclesiastes 2:17And I have hated life, for sad to me [is] the work that has been done under the sun, for the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 2:21For there is a man whose labor [is] in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity, and to a man who has not labored therein he gives it—his portion! Even this [is] vanity and a great evil.
Ecclesiastes 2:26For to a man who [is] good before Him, He has given wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; and to a sinner He has given travail, to gather and to heap up, to give to the good before God. Even this [is] vanity and distress of spirit.
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 →