“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless.”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”
- KJV Vanity of vanities, saith 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!”
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 1:2“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
- Eccl 6:12For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
- Eccl 8:8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
- Eccl 1:14I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Eccl 4:4Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
- Eccl 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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.