Ecclesiastes 1:4
in Ecclesiastes 1Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
One generation goeth, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever.
KJV
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
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This verse in Ecclesiastes 1
Commentary
11 notes on this verse"A generation goes, a generation comes, but the earth remains forever." While some men die, others are born, and those you had seen, are not seen anymore, and you then see those who have not been before. What is more vain than this vanity, than that the earth remains, which was made on account of mankind? And that man himself, the master of the earth, should be suddenly returned to the dust?
This site's exposition
Generations come and generations go
on Ecclesiastes 1:4-7
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever opens a short poem built from things that move without arriving. The sun hurries back to where it rises, the wind turns round, and the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
The sun has existed since it was created and will exist and be one and the same as long as God wants it. But if I say … that humankind remains forever, I do not mean one and the same human being but the whole …
By the will of God, therefore, the earth remains immovable. "The earth stands forever," according to Ecclesiastes, yet it is moved and nods according to the will of God. It does not therefore continue to exist because based on its own foundations. It does not stay stable because of its own props. The Lord established it by the support of his will, because "in his hand are all the ends of the earth." The simplicity of this faith is worth all the proffered proofs.
What good does the possessor of many acres gain in the end? Except that the foolish man thinks his own that which never belongs to him, ignorant seemingly in his greed that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof," for "God is king of all the earth." It is the passion of having which gives men a false title of lordship over that which can never belong to them. "The earth," says the wise Preacher, "abideth for ever," ministering to every generation, first one, then another, that is born upon it; but men, though they are so little even their own masters, that they are brought into life without knowing it by their Maker's will, and before they wish are withdrawn from it, nevertheless in their excessive vanity think that they are her lords; that they, now born, now dying, rule that which remains continually.
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCommentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
And that he has nothing more than vanity, he shows when he adds: "A generation passes away, and a generation comes." Therefore there is change and succession both in man and in his works. Sirach 14: "Some things are generated, and others are cast down; …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh,.... This shows that a man can have no profit of all his labour under the sun, because of his short continuance; as soon almost as he has got anything by his labour, he must leave it: not only particular persons, but families, nations, and kingdoms; even all the inhabitants of the world, that are contemporaries, live together in the same age, in a certain period of time; these gradually go off by death, till the whole generation is consumed, as the generation of the Israelites in the wilderness were.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Abideth - Through all successive generations of men; and therefore man is more mutable than the very earth upon which he stands, and which, together with all the comforts which he enjoyed in it, he leaves behind to be possessed by others.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
One generation passeth away - Men succeed each other in unceasing generations: but the earth is still the same; it undergoes no change that leads to melioration, or greater perfection. And it will continue the same לעולם leolam, during the whole course of time; till the end of all things arrives.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
earth . . . for ever-- (Ps 104:5). While the earth remains the same, the generations of men are ever changing; what lasting profit, then, can there be from the toils of one whose sojourn on earth, as an individual, is so brief? The "for ever" is comparative, not absolute (Ps 102:26).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Vanity is shown in mankind, the elements, and all that moves on earth; the same course is repeated again and again without any permanent result or real progress; and events and people alike are forgotten. Abideth - The apparent permanence of the earth increases by contrast the transitory condition of its inhabitants. Ever - The word does not here absolutely signify “eternity” (compare Ecc 3:11 note), but a certainly short period (compare Exo 21:6): here it might be paraphrased “as long as this world, this present order of things, lasts.”
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דּ֤וֹר | dor | a generation | H1755 → | |
| הֹלֵךְ֙ | holekh | [is] going | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| וְד֣וֹר | vedor | and a generation | H1755 → | |
| בָּ֔א | ba' | [is] coming | H935 → | 2568 times |
| וְהָאָ֖רֶץ | vehaaretz | and the earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
| לְעוֹלָ֥ם | leolam | for ever | H5769 → | 438 times |
| עֹמָֽדֶת׃ | ʾomadet | [is] continuing | H5975 → | 521 times |
דּ֤וֹרa generation
dorH1755 →
הֹלֵךְ֙[is] going
holekhH1980 →1546 times
וְד֣וֹרand a generation
vedorH1755 →
בָּ֔א[is] coming
ba'H935 →2568 times
וְהָאָ֖רֶץand the earth
vehaaretzH776 →2504 times
לְעוֹלָ֥םfor ever
leolamH5769 →438 times
עֹמָֽדֶת׃[is] continuing
ʾomadetH5975 →521 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:8
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
- 1 Peter 1:25
but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.
- Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Isaiah 55:11
so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.
- Matthew 5:18
For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
- Isaiah 40:8
Through
Psalms 104:5He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.
it leads to
- Job 26:7
He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.
- Psalms 24:2
For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
- Job 26:7
Through
Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him…
it leads to
- James 4:14
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- James 4:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Ecclesiastes
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, The Six Days of Creation; Bonaventure, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes; Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES; Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity, Chapter IV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.