There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.
Parallel translations
- WEB There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
- KJV There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
- NKJV There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
- NASB There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.
- NLT And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so 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
The Preacher names a painful vanity: the righteous sometimes suffer what the wicked deserve, and the wicked sometimes receive what the righteous deserve. Life under the sun is full of unresolved injustice.
Overview
Qoheleth honestly faces the problem of inverted outcomes, where reward and punishment seem misplaced. He does not explain it away but calls it vanity, a frustration of the present order. This very tension awaits its resolution in the cross, where the Righteous One bore what sinners deserved so that sinners might receive what they did not (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Eccl 7:15In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
- Mal 3:15So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”
- Eccl 2:14The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.
- Eccl 9:1–3So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.
- Ps 73:12–14Behold, these are the wicked—always carefree as they increase their wealth.
- Ps 73:3For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- Job 21:7Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
- Jer 12:1Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
- Eccl 4:4I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Job 9:22–24It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
- Eccl 4:8There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.
- Job 21:17–34How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?
- Eccl 10:5There is an evil I have seen under the sun—an error that proceeds from the ruler:
- Job 24:21–25They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow.
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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 8:14 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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