Because all his days his activity is painful and irritating; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is futility.
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.
- KJV For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also 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.
- 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 14:1“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
- Job 5:7but man is born to 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 stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for he gives sleep to his loved ones.
- Ps 6:6–7I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
- Esth 6:1On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king.
- Eccl 1:18For in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
- Ps 90:7–10For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.
- Ps 32:4For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
- Gen 47:9Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”
- Eccl 5:12The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
- Dan 6:18Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep fled from him.
- Ps 77:2–4In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
- Acts 14:22confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom.
- Ps 90:15Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil.
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 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.