I have seen the task which God has given the sons of mankind with which to occupy themselves.
Parallel translations
- WEB I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
- KJV I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
- BSB I have seen the burden that God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them.
- ESV I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
- NKJV I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.
- NLT I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 has seen the burden God has given people to be occupied with. Life's labors are a God-appointed task that humbles humanity.
Overview
Qoheleth observes that God has assigned humanity a weighty 'business' to engage with. This burden reflects the toil of life under the curse, yet it comes from God's hand and purpose. Recognizing our labor as divinely appointed invites us to depend on God rather than to find ultimate rest in the work itself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Eccl 1:13–14I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
- Gen 3:19By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
- Eccl 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- 1 Th 2:9For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.
- 2 Th 3:8neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you;
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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 3:10 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.