The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises.
Parallel translations
- KJV The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
- BSB The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises.
- NKJV The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose.
- NASB Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hurrying to its place it rises there again.
- NLT The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The sun rises, sets, and hurries back to rise again in a ceaseless cycle. It pictures nature's tireless, repetitive motion that never reaches a final goal.
Overview
Using the sun's daily circuit, the Preacher illustrates the wearying monotony of the created order. The repetition suggests constant activity without apparent progress or rest. Such observations expose the limits of a world locked in cycles, while Scripture as a whole points beyond the cycle to God's purposeful direction of history toward redemption.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 42:1For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
- Hab 3:11The sun and moon stood still in the sky, at the light of your arrows as they went, at the shining of your glittering spear.
- Ps 19:4–6Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
- Josh 10:13–14The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day.
- Gen 8:22While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
- Ps 89:36–37His offspring will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me.
- Ps 104:19–23He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.
- Jer 33:20“Yahweh says: ‘If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 1:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.