This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind?
Parallel translations
- KJV And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
- BSB This too is a grievous evil: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?
- NKJV And this also is a severe evil— Just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?
- NASB This also is a sickening evil: exactly as a person is born, so will he die. What then is the advantage for him who labors for the wind?
- NLT And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind.
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
It is a grievous evil that a man leaves exactly as he came, having labored only for the wind. It matters because toil aimed solely at wealth yields nothing that endures.
Overview
The Preacher laments the futility of labor that gains nothing permanent, since one departs as empty as he arrived. 'Laboring for the wind' captures the emptiness of work pursued for riches alone. The verse exposes the vanity of earthbound striving and implicitly calls for labor offered to the Lord, which is never in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 11:29He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.
- Eccl 1:3What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?
- Mark 8:36For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
- Eccl 5:13There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.
- John 6:27Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”
- Jer 2:8The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh?’ and those who handle the law didn’t know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and followed things that do not profit.
- 1 Sam 12:21Don’t turn aside to go after vain things which can’t profit or deliver, for they are vain.
- Isa 26:18We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
- Eccl 2:22–23For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?
- Hos 8:7For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
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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 5:16 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.