Ecclesiastes 1:3

The Preacher asks what lasting profit a person gains from all their toil. The implied answer is that earthly labor, on its own terms, yields no enduring gain.

Cross-references · 21

• Eccl 3:9What does the worker gain from his toil?
• Eccl 5:16This too is a grievous evil: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?
• Eccl 2:22For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?
• 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.
• Mark 8:36–37What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
• John 6:27Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”
• Prov 23:4–5Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
• 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.
• Isa 55:2Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
• Matt 16:26What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
• Hab 2:13Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
• Eccl 8:15–17So 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.
• Eccl 9:3This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.
• Eccl 5:18Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of life that God has given him—for this is his lot.
• Eccl 9:13I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me:
• Eccl 4:3But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
• Eccl 9:6Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun.
• Eccl 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?
• Eccl 7:11Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, and it benefits those who see the sun.
• Eccl 4:7Again, I saw futility under the sun.
• Hab 2:18What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

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