Blowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north, The wind continues swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.
Parallel translations
- WEB The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses.
- KJV The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
- BSB The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course.
- NKJV The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit.
- NLT The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.
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 wind blows in circuits, turning and returning without ceasing. Like the sun, it depicts endless motion that arrives at no resting place.
Overview
The wind's circular wandering continues the theme of nature's repetitive, seemingly purposeless activity. The vivid repetition mirrors human striving that goes round and round 'under the sun.' These cycles testify to a creation 'subjected to futility' (Romans 8:20), groaning for the liberation that comes through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- John 3:8The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
- Eccl 11:5As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.
- Ps 107:29He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still.
- Job 37:9Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.
- Ps 107:25For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
- Job 37:17You whose clothing is warm, when the earth is still by reason of the south wind?
- Jonah 1:4But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up.
- Matt 7:27The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.”
- Matt 7:24“Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.
- Acts 27:13–15When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to shore.
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 1:6 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.