Ecclesiastes 2:17
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 2:17 in other translations
| BSB | So 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. |
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| WEB | So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. |
| ASV | So I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind. |
| YLT | And I have hated life, for sad to me is the work that hath been done under the sun, for the whole is vanity and vexation of spirit. |
| DARBY | And I hated life; for the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all is vanity and pursuit of the wind. |
| BBE | So I was hating life, because everything under the sun was evil to me: all is to no purpose and desire for wind. |
| Webster | Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous to me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. |
What does Ecclesiastes 2:17 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Ecclesiastes 2:12-17
Solomon found that knowledge and prudence were preferable to ignorance and folly, though human wisdom and knowledge will not make a man happy. The most learned of men, who dies a stranger to Christ Jesus, will perish equally with the most ignorant; and what good can commendations on earth do to the body in the grave, or the soul in hell? And the spirits of just men made perfect cannot want them. So that if this were…
Ecclesiastes 2:17 in the original Hebrew
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Cross references for Ecclesiastes 2:17
- Ecclesiastes 2:11
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 4:2
Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.
- Jonah 4:8
And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
- 1 Kings 19:4
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
- Numbers 11:15
And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
- Job 3:20-22
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
- Ecclesiastes 2:22
For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
- Jeremiah 20:14-18
Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. …
- Psalms 89:47
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
- Habakkuk 1:3
Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
- Jonah 4:3
Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
- Ezekiel 3:14
So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.
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Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- Ecclesiastes 2:16
For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
- Ecclesiastes 2:17
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Ecclesiastes 2:18
Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
Ecclesiastes 2:17 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Aborrecí por tanto la vida; porque la obra que se hace debajo del sol me era fastidiosa; por cuanto todo es vanidad y aflicción de espíritu. |
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| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | Et j’ai haï la vie, parce que l’œuvre qui se fait sous le soleil m’a été à charge, car tout est vanité et poursuite du vent. |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Da haßte ich das Leben; denn das Tun, welches unter der Sonne geschieht, mißfiel mir; denn alles ist Eitelkeit und ein Haschen nach Wind. - |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Et idcirco tæduit me vitæ meæ, videntem mala universa esse sub sole, et cuncta vanitatem et afflictionem spiritus. |