Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”
- BSB “Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”
- NKJV “Vanityof vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”
- NASB “Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “all is futility!”
- NLT “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless.”
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
The Preacher repeats his refrain that all earthly things are fleeting and breath-like. It frames the whole book's quest as ultimately empty apart from God.
Overview
This verse forms an inclusio with 1:2, bracketing the entire book with the same cry: everything "under the sun" is hevel, vapor, fleeting and unable to satisfy in itself. The Preacher is not denying that life has good gifts, but insisting that nothing in a fallen world bears the weight of ultimate meaning. This honest verdict drives the reader toward the book's conclusion and ultimately toward Christ, in whom alone the vanity of life finds purpose and the curse begins to be undone.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Eccl 1:2Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
- Eccl 6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
- Eccl 8:8There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
- Eccl 1:14I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Eccl 4:4Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
- Eccl 2:17Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
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 12:8 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.