1 Words of a preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity. 3 What advantage [is] to man by all his labor that he labors at under the sun? 4 A generation is going, and a generation is coming, and the earth is standing for all time. 5 Also, the sun has risen, and the sun has gone in, and to its place panting it is rising there. 6 Going to the south, and turning around to the north, turning around, turning around, the wind is going, and by its circuits the wind has returned. 7 All the streams are going to the sea, and the sea is not full; to a place to where the streams are going, there they are turning back to go. 8 All these things are wearying; a man is not able to speak, the eye is not satisfied by seeing, nor is the ear filled from hearing. 9 What [is] that which has been? It [is] that which is, and what [is] that which has been done? It [is] that which is done, and there is not an entirely new thing under the sun. 10 There is a thing of which [one] says: “See this, it [is] new!” Already it has been in the ages that were before us! 11 There is not a remembrance of former [generations]; and also of the latter that are, there is no remembrance of them with those that are at the last. 12 I, a preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I have given my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that has been done under the heavens. It [is] a sad travail God has given to the sons of man to be humbled by it. 14 I have seen all the works that have been done under the sun, and behold, the whole [is] vanity and distress of spirit! 15 A crooked thing [one] is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered. 16 I spoke with my heart, saying, “I, behold, have magnified and added wisdom above everyone who has been before me at Jerusalem, and my heart has seen wisdom and knowledge abundantly. 17 And I give my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I have known that even this [is] distress of spirit; 18 for in abundance of wisdom [is] abundance of sadness, and he who adds knowledge adds pain.”
Ecclesiastes · Literal Standard Version
Ecclesiastes 1 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (18)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Ecclesiastes 12:8–10; Ecclesiastes 1:12; Ecclesiastes 7:27; 1 Kings 11:42–43; 2 Peter 2:5
- 2 Psalm 144:4; Romans 8:20; Ecclesiastes 5:10; Psalm 39:5–6; Ecclesiastes 12:8
- 3 Ecclesiastes 3:9; Ecclesiastes 5:16; Ecclesiastes 2:22; Mark 8:36–37; Ecclesiastes 2:11
- 4 Psalm 104:5; Zechariah 1:5; Ecclesiastes 6:12; Matthew 24:35; Psalm 119:90–91
- 5 Psalm 42:1; Habakkuk 3:11; Psalm 19:4–6; Psalm 104:19–23; Joshua 10:13–14
- 6 John 3:8; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Job 37:9; Psalm 107:29; Job 37:17
- 7 Job 38:10–11
- 8 Proverbs 27:20; Matthew 11:28; Ecclesiastes 4:8; Ecclesiastes 5:10–11; Psalm 63:5
- 9 Ecclesiastes 3:15; Ecclesiastes 6:10; Revelation 21:1; Ecclesiastes 2:12; Ecclesiastes 7:10
- 10 Acts 7:51; Matthew 23:30–32; Luke 17:26–30; Matthew 5:12; 2 Timothy 3:8
- 11 Ecclesiastes 2:16; Psalm 9:6; Ecclesiastes 9:5; Isaiah 42:9; Isaiah 41:22–26
- 12 Ecclesiastes 1:1; 1 Kings 4:1–19
- 13 Ecclesiastes 3:10; Genesis 3:19; 1 Timothy 4:15; Ecclesiastes 8:16–17; Ecclesiastes 1:17
- 14 Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:17; Ecclesiastes 2:26; Ecclesiastes 6:9; Ecclesiastes 1:17–18
- 15 Ecclesiastes 7:12–13; Matthew 6:27; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Isaiah 40:4; Lamentations 3:37
- 16 Ecclesiastes 2:9; 1 Kings 4:30; 1 Kings 10:7; 1 Kings 3:12–13; Hebrews 5:14
- 17 Ecclesiastes 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Ecclesiastes 7:23–25; Ecclesiastes 2:10–12; Ecclesiastes 1:13–14
- 18 Job 28:28; Ecclesiastes 12:12–13; 1 Corinthians 3:18–20; Ecclesiastes 7:16; James 3:13–17
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
"Do I not weep much the more?" For, "He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." The more I long for what is not here, do I not so much the more groan for it until it comes?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
But thou canst not; for, "vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Let us go to the tombs; show me thy father; show me thy wife.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)