Ecclesiastes 1:2
“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
BSB
ASV
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
KJV
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Qoheleth's frame: all human striving under the sun is fleeting vapor
Vanity of vanities - As the words are an exclamation, it would be better to translate, O vanity of vanities! Emptiness of emptinesses. True, substantial good is not to be found in any thing liable to change and corruption. The author referred to in the introduction begins his paraphrase thus: - “O vain deluding world! whose largest gifts Thine emptiness betray, like painted clouds, Or watery bubbles: as the vapor flies, Dispersed by lightest blast, so fleet thy joys, And leave no trace behind.
And, as some think, one main thing he designed was to show that the everlasting throne and kingdom which God had by Nathan promised to David and his seed must be of another world; for all things in this world are subject to vanity, and therefore have not in them sufficient to answer the extent of that promise.
The repetition increases the force. all--Hebrew, "the all"; all without exception, namely, earthly things. vanity--not in themselves, for God maketh nothing in vain (1Ti 4:4, 5), but vain when put in the place of God and made the end, instead of the means (Ps 39:5, 6; Mt 6:33); vain, also, because of the "vanity" to which they are "subjected" by the fall (Ro 8:20).
Bookends: the same words open and close
Ecclesiastes 12:8BOOK-LEVEL. Verbatim refrain 'Vanity of vanities... all is vanity' opens and closes Qoheleth's argument. Identical text at both edges.
ASV/WEB text; BibleHub Ecclesiastes 12:8 commentaries
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Ecclesiastes 5:10He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.
leads to
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and…
And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
Through
Romans 8:20For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope
leads to
And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because…
And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the LORD has cursed.”
We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.
How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said,…
