Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.
Parallel translations
- WEB All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.
- KJV All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
- BSB All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow.
- NKJV All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again.
- NASB All the rivers flow into the sea, Yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, There they flow 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
Rivers continually flow to the sea, yet the sea never fills. It illustrates ceaseless activity that produces no lasting change or satisfaction.
Overview
The water cycle becomes another emblem of constant motion without final accomplishment. The unfilled sea pictures the futility of effort that never reaches completion 'under the sun.' This restlessness mirrors the human heart, which, as Augustine observed, finds no rest until it rests in God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Job 38:10–11marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
- Ps 104:6–9You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 1:7 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.