Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
New International Version - UK
2 ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’
says the Teacher.
‘Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.’
3 What do people gain from all their labours
at which they toil under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains for ever.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
King James Version
2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
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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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