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.
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),
- KJV 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:)
- 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),
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 is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
- Ps 127:2It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for he gives sleep to his loved ones.
- Eccl 1:13I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
- Eccl 4:8There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. “For whom then, do I labor, and deprive my soul of enjoyment?” This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.
- Eccl 7:25I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.
- Eccl 8:7For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?
- Eccl 8:9All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.
- Eccl 5:12The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
- Gen 31:40This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my 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
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.