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.
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.
- BSB All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content 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.
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; and a man’s eyes are never satisfied.
- Matt 11:28“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Eccl 4:8There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. “For whom then, do I labor, and deprive my soul of enjoyment?” This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.
- Prov 30:15–16“The leach has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ “There are three things that are never satisfied; four that don’t say, ‘Enough:’
- Eccl 4:1–4Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
- Eccl 5:10–11He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.
- Rom 8:22–23For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
- Eccl 7:24–26That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?
- Eccl 2:11Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
- Eccl 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Matt 5:6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
- Rev 7:16–17They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat;
- Ps 63:5My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
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 1:8 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.