Ecclesiastes 1:3
What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?
Majority Standard Bible
In The King James Version
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
In Context
2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
Cross References
Ecclesiastes 2:11Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:22For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 4:3But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 5:16This too is a grievous affliction: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?
Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 8:15So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives 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 →