For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
Parallel translations
- WEB For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
- BSB Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.
- NKJV For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
- NASB Because all his days his activity is painful and irritating; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is futility.
- NLT Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all 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
A person's days are full of sorrow and grief, with no rest even at night. Earthly toil brings restless pain rather than lasting satisfaction.
Overview
The Preacher describes the relentless burden of labor that troubles even one's sleep. This vivid picture of unrest captures the futility of seeking peace through work alone. It stands in contrast to the rest Christ offers, who invites the weary and heavy-laden to come to Him and find rest for their souls.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Job 14:1Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
- Job 5:7Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
- Job 7:13–14When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
- 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.
- Ps 6:6–7I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
- Esth 6:1On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
- Eccl 1:18For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
- Ps 90:7–10For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
- Ps 32:4For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
- Gen 47:9And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
- Eccl 5:12The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
- Dan 6:18Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him.
- Ps 77:2–4In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
- Acts 14:22Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
- Ps 90:15Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 2:23 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.