Ecclesiastes 2:17
15 So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.
16 For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
18 I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
19 And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- KJV
- Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- WEB
- So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- ASV
- So I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
- DARBY
- And I hated life; for the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all is vanity and pursuit of the wind.
- BLB
- And I have hated this life, because the work [was] evil to me that was done under the sun—for all [is] vapor and a striving after the wind.
- ÅB
- Da ble jeg lei av livet; for ondt var i mine øyne alt som skjer under solen; for alt sammen er tomhet og jag etter vind.
- OTB
- Så jeg avskydde livet, fordi arbeidet som ble gjort under solen var smertefullt for meg. Alt er meningsløst, et jag etter vind.
- B1930
- Da blev jeg lei av livet; for ondt var i mine øine alt som skjer under solen; for alt sammen er tomhet og jag efter vind.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Ecclesiastes 2:11
Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Read in contextEcclesiastes 4:2
So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.
Read in contextJonah 4:8
As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
Read in context1 Kings 19:4
while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
Read in contextNumbers 11:15
If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”
Read in contextJob 3:20–22
Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
Read in contextEcclesiastes 2:22
For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?
Read in contextJeremiah 20:14–18
Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.
Read in context