Ecclesiastes 12:8 BSB

Original language & word study

6 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
הֲבֵ֧ל	ha.Vel	futility of	H1892 →
הֲבָלִ֛ים	ha.va.Lim	futilities	H1892 →
אָמַ֥ר	'a.Mar	he said	H559 →
הַקּוֹהֶ֖לֶת	ha.ko.He.let	the Teacher	H6953 →
הַכֹּ֥ל	ha.Kol	<the> everything	H3605 →
הָֽבֶל׃	Ha.vel	[is] futility	H1892 →

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 walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

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 1:2
“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
leads to
- Psalms 144:4
  Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
  Reached by 2 independent 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
Through
Ecclesiastes 1:14
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
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 independent 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…
Through
Ecclesiastes 8:8
As 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…
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

The gold bar shows how strongly the cross-reference sources tie the two verses together: a long bar means many compiled references make the connection, a short one means few.

Ecclesiastes 1:2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”Psalms 39:6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.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 those who practice it.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 under the sun?Proverbs 23:5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.Jeremiah 2:13“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.Psalms 144:4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.Ecclesiastes 4:4I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.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.Psalms 62:9Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.Ecclesiastes 2:17So 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.Psalms 119:96I have seen a limit to all perfection, but Your commandment is without limit.Psalms 78:33So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.Ecclesiastes 7:14In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this: God has made one of these along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him.Matthew 13:45Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.

Bookends: the same words open and close
Ecclesiastes 1:2
BOOK-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

Featured studies on this passage

On Ecclesiastes 12:8

Ecclesiastes: the Study Guide

Open the study →

On Ecclesiastes 12:8

Bookends: How Scripture Frames Itself

Open the study →

On Ecclesiastes 12:8

Vanity Under the Sun — Ecclesiastes

The book's own summary verdict, spoken twice, opening and closing : nothing under the sun is exempted from the widening ladder above it.

Open the study →

Walks through Ecclesiastes 12

Wisdom and the Poets

Open the study →

Commentary

Voices on this verse

Original language & word study

The walk

Where the connections lead

Featured studies on this passage

About Ecclesiastes

Where the connections lead

01Commentary

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

05Featured studies on this passage

06About Ecclesiastes

Where the connections lead

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

Featured studies on this passage

About Ecclesiastes