For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
Parallel translations
- WEB For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?
- BSB For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?
- NKJV For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?
- NASB For what does a person get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun?
- NLT So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety?
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
He asks what a person really gains from all the toil and anxious striving of life. The implied answer is that such striving yields no lasting profit.
Overview
Qoheleth poses again the book's central question about the net gain of human labor. The mention of striving and anxiety captures the inner toll that ceaseless work exacts. This pointed question dismantles confidence in self-made gain and prepares the reader to receive contentment as a gift from God rather than an achievement of effort.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Ps 127:2It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
- Eccl 1:3What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
- Matt 6:34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
- Phil 4:6Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
- Eccl 4:6Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
- 1 Tim 6:8And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
- Eccl 3:9What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
- 1 Pet 5:7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
- Eccl 4:8There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
- Matt 16:26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
- Eccl 6:7–8All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
- Eccl 8:15Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
- Matt 6:11Give us this day our daily bread.
- Eccl 5:17All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
- Eccl 5:10–11He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
- Luke 12:22And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.
- Prov 16:26He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.
- Matt 6:25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
- Luke 12:29And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
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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 2:22 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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