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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 7:15All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
- Mal 3:15And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
- Eccl 2:14The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
- Eccl 9:1–3For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
- Ps 73:12–14Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
- Ps 73:3For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- Job 21:7Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
- Jer 12:1Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
- Eccl 4:4Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Job 9:22–24This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
- Eccl 4:8There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
- Job 21:17–34How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.
- Eccl 10:5There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:
- Job 24:21–25He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good 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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