Ecclesiastes 1:5
in Ecclesiastes 1The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to its place where it ariseth.
KJV
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
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This verse in Ecclesiastes 1
Commentary
15 notes on this verse, Ecc 1:6 These verses are confused by being falsely divided. The first clause of the sixth should be joined to the fifth verse. “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he ariseth; going to the south, and circulating to the north.”
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.
This site's exposition
it hurries back
The word for hurries means panting, like a runner who labors for breath. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set it beside the strong man in Psalm 19:5, and Barnes gives the sense: at its place, panting, it rises there. Bonaventure sees in the sun a thing that never rests.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
The great sun, when compared with the Sun of righteousness, is vanity.
The sun of righteousness rises in the soul. The beginning of its rise is preparatory. It is a preparatory enlightenment. But when it circles around the whole soul and enlightens it altogether so that nothing is outside the light any more, then the soul is …
And Solomon says: The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place. Arising he goeth there towards the south and wheeleth round in his circuit, and the wind goeth on its circuits. He also, in what he says, agrees with Moses …
By the blessed Solomon then, when in the book of Ecclesiastes, a book attested [to be inspired], and not rejected [from the canon] he says: The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place; arising there he goeth to the south, …
"The sun rises and the sun sets, then it rushes to its place, where it rises again." The sun itself, which is given as light for mankind, shows the orbit of the world by its rising and it setting every day. After the sun has soaked its burning orb in the ocean, it returns by routes unknown to me to that place whence it had come; and when the period of night is over, it again bursts out quickly from its bed.
7 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 23 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Ecclesiastes shows these four when he says: "The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again, maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north." Marvelous was the origin: how the supersubstantial radiation was united to …
A commentator
BonaventureCommentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Here secondly he shows mutability in the celestial nature, as is evident in the sun, which never rests, but when it rises, it tends toward setting, whence it does not remain in its rising. Therefore he says: "The sun rises and sets," so that it …
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 13 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
In the allegorical sense, the sun signifies Christ. "The sun rises and the sun goes down." It rises in the nativity, it goes down in death; it orbits through noon in the ascension; it is inclined to the north in the judgment.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And this is certain from experience that the things of this world are so narrow, and the mind of man so vast, that there must be something new to satisfy the mind; and even delightful things by too frequent repetition, are so far from yielding satisfaction, that they grow tedious and troublesome.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"Panting" as the Hebrew for "hasteth"; metaphor, from a runner (Ps 19:5, "a strong man") in a "race." It applies rather to the rising sun, which seems laboriously to mount up to the meridian, than to the setting sun; the accents too favor MAURER, "And (that too, returning) to his place, where panting he riseth."
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Hasteth ... - literally, at his place panting (in his eagerness) riseth he there.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְזָרַ֥ח | vezarach | and it rises | H2224 → | |
| הַשֶּׁ֖מֶשׁ | hashemesh | the sun | H8121 → | 134 times |
| וּבָ֣א | uva' | and it goes | H935 → | 2568 times |
| הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ | hashamesh | the sun | H8121 → | 134 times |
| וְאֶ֨ל־ | veel- | and to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| מְקוֹמ֔וֹ | mekomo | place its | H4725 → | 401 times |
| שׁוֹאֵ֛ף | shoef | [is] panting | H7602 → | |
| זוֹרֵ֥חַֽ | zoreach | [is] rising | H2224 → | |
| ה֖וּא | hu' | it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| שָֽׁם׃ | sham | there | H8033 → | 834 times |
וְזָרַ֥חand it rises
vezarachH2224 →
הַשֶּׁ֖מֶשׁthe sun
hashemeshH8121 →134 times
וּבָ֣אand it goes
uva'H935 →2568 times
הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁthe sun
hashameshH8121 →134 times
וְאֶ֨ל־and to
veel-H413 →5510 times
מְקוֹמ֔וֹplace its
mekomoH4725 →401 times
שׁוֹאֵ֛ף[is] panting
shoefH7602 →
זוֹרֵ֥חַֽ[is] rising
zoreachH2224 →
ה֖וּאit
hu'H1931 →1879 times
שָֽׁם׃there
shamH8033 →834 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
Psalms 42:1As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.
it leads to
- Psalms 63:1–2
O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Psalms 143:6–7
I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- Psalms 119:131
I open my mouth and pant, longing for Your commandments.
- Isaiah 26:8–9
Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.
- Psalms 84:1–2
How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of Hosts!
- Psalms 63:1–2
Through
Habakkuk 3:11Sun and moon stood still in their places at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.
it leads to
- Psalms 144:5–6
Part Your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, that they may smoke.
- Joshua 10:11–13
As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by…
- Psalms 18:12–14
From the brightness of His presence His clouds advanced— hailstones and coals of fire.
- Psalms 144:5–6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Ecclesiastes
This page draws on 15 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 1; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 23; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 13; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 9; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 10; Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 13:12; 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; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 1:5.