Ecclesiastes 12:8
in Ecclesiastes 12“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.
KJV
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
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This verse in Ecclesiastes 12
Commentary
10 notes on this verseThis affecting and minute description of old age and death is concluded by the author with the same exclamation by which he began this book: O vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth, all is vanity. Now that man, the masterpiece of God’s creation, the delegated sovereign of this lower world, is turned to dust, what is there stable or worthy of contemplation besides? All - All is Vanity!
This site's exposition
Remember Him before the silver cord is snapped
on Ecclesiastes 12:6-8
Death comes in four images, light and water cut off at the source. Verse 7 answers Genesis: the dust returns to the ground (Genesis 3:19) and the spirit returns to God who gave it (Genesis 2:7). The cry of verse 8 closes the frame opened at 1:2.
This site's exposition
Futility of futilities
The Teacher ends where he began at 1:2, and hevel, the Hebrew word rendered futile, means vapor or breath. Jerome notes that the words return straight after the dust returns to the ground and the spirit to God. Barnes marks the verse as the start of the epilogue.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Such is "vanity of vanities," your splendid buildings, your vast and overflowing riches, the herds of slaves that bustle along the public square, your pomp and vainglory, your high thoughts, and your ostentation. For all these are vain; they came not from the hand of God, but are of our own creating. But why then are they vain? Because they have no useful end. Riches are vain when they are spent upon luxury; but they cease to be vain when they are "dispersed and given to the needy." But when thou hast spent them upon luxury, let us look at the end of them, what it is;—grossness of body, flatulence, pantings, fullness of belly, heaviness of head, softness of flesh, feverishness, enervation; for as a man who shall draw into a leaking vessel labors in vain, so also does the one who lives in luxury and self-indulgence draw into a leaking vessel.
Hear what Solomon says, who knew the present world by actual experience. "I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens, and orchards and pools of water. I gathered me also silver and gold. I gat myself men-singers, and women-singers, and flocks, and herds." There was no one who lived in greater luxury, or higher glory. There was no one so wise or so powerful, no one who saw all things so succeeding to his heart's desire. What then? He had no enjoyment from all these things. What after all does he say of it himself? "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Vanity not simply but superlatively. Let us believe him, and lay hold on that in which there is no vanity, in which there is truth; and what is based upon a solid rock, where there is no old age, nor decline, but all things bloom and flourish, without decay, or waxing old, or approaching dissolution. Let us, I beseech you, love God with genuine affection, not from fear of hell, but from desire of the kingdom. For what is comparable to seeing Christ? Surely nothing! What to the enjoyment of those good things? Surely nothing! Well may there be nothing; for "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."
"Vanity of vanities says Ecclesiastes; all is vanity." Then after the description of man's death, he goes back to the beginning of his book, saying, "vanity of vanities, says Ecclesiastes, all is vanity" [Eccl. 1,2.]. For all toil of mortal men, which is argued all through the books, is pertinent here, so that dust returns to the earth, and the spirit returns to the place, whence it was taken, it is a great vanity in this world to toil and obtain nothing for the future from it.
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCommentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 12 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
As was said from the beginning of the book, this entire book has an order directed toward proving one proposition, which he set forth at the beginning of the book, namely this: "Vanity of vanities" etc. This he proved throughout the entire book and now …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He recommends what he had written upon this subject by divine direction and inspiration to our serious consideration. The words of this book are faithful, and well worthy our acceptance, for, 1. They are the words of one that was a convert, a penitent, that could speak by dear-bought experience of the vanity of the world and the folly of expecting great things from it.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
This passage is properly regarded as the Epilogue of the whole book; a kind of apology for the obscurity of many of its sayings. The passage serves therefore to make the book more intelligible and more acceptable. Here, as in the beginning of the book Ecc 1:1-2, the Preacher speaks of himself Ecc 12:8-10 in the third person. He first repeats Ecc 12:8 the mournful, perplexing theme with which his musings began Ecc 1:2; and then states the encouraging practical conclusion Ecc 12:13-14 to which they have led him. It has been pointed out that the Epilogue assumes the identity of the Preacher with the writer of the Book of Proverbs. Ecc 12:11 literally, Words of wise men are as goads, and as nails driven in (by) masters of assemblies; they are given from one shepherd: “goads,” because they rouse the hearer and impel him to right actions; “nails” (perhaps tent-spikes), because they remain fixed in the memory: “masters of assemblies” are simply “teachers” or “preachers” (see Ecc 1:1 note), instructors of such assemblies as Wisdom addresses Pro 1:20. One shepherd - i. e., God, who is the supreme Giver of wisdom Pro 2:6, and the chief Shepherd Jer 23:1-4. Compare 1Co 2:12-13. Ecc 12:12 By these - i. e., “By the words of wise men.” Books - Rather, “Writings.” Probably the proverbs current in the Preacher’s age, including, though not especially indicating, his own. The Preacher protests against the folly of protracted, unprofitable, meditation. Ecc 12:13 literally, “The conclusion of the discourse” (or “word,” = words, Ecc 1:1), “the whole, let us hear.” The whole duty of man - Rather, the whole man. […]
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲבֵ֧ל | havel | futility of | H1892 → | 73 times |
| הֲבָלִ֛ים | havalim | futilities | H1892 → | 73 times |
| אָמַ֥ר | ʾamar | he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| הַקּוֹהֶ֖לֶת | hakohelet | the Teacher | H6953 → | 7 times |
| הַכֹּ֥ל | hakol | <the> everything | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הָֽבֶל׃ | havel | [is] futility | H1892 → | 73 times |
הֲבֵ֧לfutility of
havelH1892 →73 times
הֲבָלִ֛יםfutilities
havalimH1892 →73 times
אָמַ֥רhe said
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
הַקּוֹהֶ֖לֶתthe Teacher
hakoheletH6953 →7 times
הַכֹּ֥ל<the> everything
hakolH3605 →5413 times
הָֽבֶל׃[is] futility
havelH1892 →73 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
Ecclesiastes 1:2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
it leads to
- Psalms 144:4
Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Romans 8:20
For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope
- Ecclesiastes 5:10
He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.
- Psalms 39:5–6
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- Psalms 144:4
Through
Ecclesiastes 1:14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over…
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- 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…
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
Through
Ecclesiastes 8:8As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release…
it leads to
- Job 14:5
Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,
- Psalms 89:48
What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
- Job 14:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
About Ecclesiastes
This page draws on 9 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); Bonaventure, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 12; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON EPHESIANS 12; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 15; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.