All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing.
Parallel translations
- WEB All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
- KJV All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
- NKJV All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing.
- NASB All things are wearisome; No one can tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
- NLT Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
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
All things are wearisome, and the eye and ear are never satisfied. Human desire is restless and cannot be filled by what this world offers.
Overview
Qoheleth moves from nature's monotony to human experience, noting that our senses crave endlessly yet are never content. This insatiability exposes a deep dissatisfaction built into life apart from God. It anticipates Jesus' promise that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and who come to Him, will be filled and satisfied.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Prov 27:20Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
- Matt 11:28Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- 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.
- Prov 30:15–16The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:
- Eccl 4:1–4Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.
- Eccl 5:10–11He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.
- Rom 8:22–23We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.
- Eccl 7:24–26What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?
- 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 2:26To 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.
- Matt 5:6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
- Rev 7:16–17‘Never again will they hunger, and never will they thirst; nor will the sun beat down upon them, nor any scorching heat.’
- Ps 63:5My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You.
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 1:8 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.