Ecclesiastes 5:16 {15}
Good News Translation
It isn't right! We go just as we came. We labor, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get?

New Revised Standard Version
This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go; and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind?

Contemporary English Version
That's terribly unfair. They leave the world just as they came. They gained nothing from running after the wind.

New American Bible
This too is a grievous evil, that they go just as they came. What then does it profit them to toil for the wind?

Douay-Rheims Bible
A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?

a sore

Ecclesiastes 5:13 There is also another grievous evil, which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner.

Ecclesiastes 2:22,23 For what profit shall a man have of all his labour, and vexation of spirit, with which he hath been tormented under the sun? . . .

what

1 Samuel 12:21 And turn not aside after vain things, which shall never profit you, nor deliver you, because they are vain.

Jeremiah 2:8 The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.

Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?

for

Ecclesiastes 1:3 What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun?

Proverbs 11:29 The fruit of the just man is a tree of life: and he that gaineth souls is wise.

Isaiah 26:18 We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.

Hosea 8:7 For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.

John 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting, which the Son of man will give you. For him hath God, the Father, sealed.

Context
The Futility of Wealth
15As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labour. 16A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?17All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.…
Cross References
1 Corinthians 16:16
That you also be subject to such and to every one that worketh with us and laboureth.

Proverbs 11:29
The fruit of the just man is a tree of life: and he that gaineth souls is wise.

Ecclesiastes 1:3
What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 2:11
And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labours wherein I had laboured in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 3:9
What hath man more of his labour?

Ecclesiastes 5:15
Top of Page
Top of Page