Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Vanity of Human Toil
3 What profit have we from all the toil
which we toil at under the sun?[b](B)
4 One generation departs and another generation comes,
but the world forever stays.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
English Standard Version
2 (A)Vanity[a] of vanities, says (B)the Preacher,
(C)vanity of vanities! (D)All is vanity.
3 (E)What (F)does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but (G)the earth remains forever.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 1:2 The Hebrew term hebel, translated vanity or vain, refers concretely to a “mist,” “vapor,” or “mere breath,” and metaphorically to something that is fleeting or elusive (with different nuances depending on the context). It appears five times in this verse and in 29 other verses in Ecclesiastes
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