When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
Parallel translations
- WEB When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
- BSB When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the task that one performs on the earth—though his eyes do not see sleep in the day or even in the night—
- NKJV When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night,
- NASB When I devoted my mind to know wisdom and to see the business which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night),
- NLT In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night.
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
When the Preacher set his heart to grasp all earthly business, even depriving himself of sleep, he found the task overwhelming. Human striving cannot master the workings of the world.
Overview
Qoheleth describes his relentless, sleepless pursuit of understanding all that happens on earth. The effort itself proves the limits of human wisdom. This humble admission prepares for verse 17's conclusion and points to the God whose ways surpass our searching (Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Eccl 2:23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
- Ps 127:2It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
- Eccl 1:13And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
- 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.
- Eccl 7:25I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
- Eccl 8:7For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
- Eccl 8:9All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
- Eccl 5:12The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
- Gen 31:40Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
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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 8:16 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
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