Ecclesiastes 1:2

The Preacher's thesis: everything is 'vanity'—fleeting, empty, and unable to satisfy. It declares life apart from God to be like a vapor that cannot be grasped.

Cross-references · 20

• Ps 144:4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
• Rom 8:20For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope
• Eccl 5:10He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.
• Ps 39:5–6You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
• Eccl 12:8“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”
• Eccl 2:26To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
• Eccl 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
• Eccl 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.
• Eccl 2:19And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.
• Eccl 2:23Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.
• Eccl 3:19For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile.
• Eccl 6:11For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?
• Eccl 2:21When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil.
• Eccl 11:10So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.
• Eccl 4:4I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
• Eccl 4:8There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.
• Ps 62:9–10Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
• Eccl 2:15So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.
• Eccl 11:8So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.
• Eccl 4:16There is no limit to all the people who were before them. Yet the successor will not be celebrated by those who come even later. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

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