All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
Parallel translations
- WEB All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
- BSB All a man’s labor is for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.
- NKJV All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied.
- NASB All a person’s labor is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not satisfied.
- NLT All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough.
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
All a person's labor is to feed his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied. It matters because human striving never fully quiets our deepest hunger.
Overview
The Preacher observes that despite endless toil for sustenance, desire remains unfilled, a recurring theme of insatiability (5:10). Earthly provision meets immediate needs but cannot satisfy the soul. This restless hunger points beyond physical bread to Jesus, the bread of life, in whom alone our deepest longing finds rest (John 6:35).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- John 6:27Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
- Prov 16:26He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.
- 1 Tim 6:6–8But godliness with contentment is great gain.
- 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?
- Eccl 6:3If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
- Luke 12:19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
- Eccl 5:10He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
- Gen 3:17–19And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
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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 6:7 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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