Ecclesiastes 1:3
What profit has a man of all his labour which he takes under the sun?
Updated King James Version
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, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
4One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but the earth abides 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 vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:22For what has man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he has laboured under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 4:3Yea, better is he than either of them, which has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 5:16And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit has he that has laboured for the wind?
Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 8:15Then I commended delight, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which 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 →