Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.
Parallel translations
- WEB Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the sun.
- KJV Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold 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.
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 you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
- Eccl 7:11Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun.
- Ps 84:11For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.
- Prov 15:30The light of the eyes rejoices the heart. Good news gives health to the bones.
- Job 33:30to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.
- Prov 29:13The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: Yahweh gives sight to the eyes of both.
- Eccl 6:5Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.
- Ps 56:13For you have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
- Job 33:28He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life shall see the light.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 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
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.