Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
Parallel translations
- WEB Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the sun.
- BSB Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
- NKJV Truly the light is sweet, And it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun;
- NASB The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.
- NLT Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.
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
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. Simply being alive to enjoy God's world is a genuine good.
Overview
Qoheleth celebrates the basic gift of life and the joy of seeing daylight. After much sober reflection, he affirms that existence itself is a sweet grace. This gratitude for light prepares for his call to rejoice, and it points beyond physical light to Christ, the true light who gives life to all who follow him (Psalm 84:11; John 8:12).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Matt 5:45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
- Eccl 7:11Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
- Ps 84:11For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
- Prov 15:30The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart: and a good report maketh the bones fat.
- Job 33:30To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
- Prov 29:13The poor and the deceitful man meet together: the LORD lighteneth both their eyes.
- Eccl 6:5Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
- Ps 56:13For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
- Job 33:28He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
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 11:7 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
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