Ecclesiastes 2:23
For all his days are sorrowful, and his work is burdensome; even at night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
Additional Resources
Other Translations
Linguistic Bible Translation from Source Texts
All their days are full of sorrow, and their work is filled with grief; even at night their mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.
King James Version 1769 (Standard Version)
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers
For all his days{H3117} are [but] sorrows,{H4341} and his travail{H6045} is grief;{H3708} yea, even in the night{H3915} his heart{H3820} taketh no rest.{H7901} This also is vanity.{H1892}
King James Version with Strong's Numbers
For all his days{H3117} are sorrows{H4341}, and his travail{H6045} grief{H3708}; yea, his heart{H3820} taketh not rest{H7901}{(H8804)} in the night{H3915}. This is also vanity{H1892}.
Coverdale Bible (1535)
but heuynesse, sorowe & disquyetnes all ye dayes of his life? In so moch that his herte can not rest in the night. Is not this also a vayne thinge?
Geneva Bible (1560)
For all his dayes are sorowes, and his trauaile griefe: his heart also taketh not rest in the night: which also is vanitie.
Bishops' Bible (1568)
But heauinesse, sorowe, and disquietnesse all the dayes of his life? Insomuch that his heart can not rest in the nyght: This is also a vayne thyng.
Authorized King James Version (1611)
For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
Webster's Bible (1833)
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail sadness; even at night his heart hath not lain down; this also `is' vanity.
American Standard Version (1901)
For all his days are `but' sorrows, and his travail is grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.
American Standard Version (1901)
For all his days are [but] sorrows, and his travail is grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.
Bible in Basic English (1941)
All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose.
World English Bible (2000)
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
NET Bible® (New English Translation)
For all day long his work produces pain and frustration, and even at night his mind cannot relax! This also is futile!
Referenced Verses
- Job 14:1 : 1 Man who is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
- Job 5:7 : 7 Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
- Job 7:13-14 : 13 When I say, 'My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint,' 14 then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me with visions:
- Ps 127:2 : 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for He gives His beloved sleep.
- Eccl 1:18 : 18 For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
- Eccl 5:12 : 12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
- Dan 6:18 : 18 Then the king went to his palace, and spent the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep went from him.
- Acts 14:22 : 22 Strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.
- Gen 47:9 : 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
- Esth 6:1 : 1 That night the king could not sleep, so he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
- Ps 6:6-7 : 6 I am weary with my groaning; all the night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. 7 My eye is consumed because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies.
- Ps 32:4 : 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
- Ps 77:2-4 : 2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out in the night and did not rest; my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. 4 You hold my eyes wide awake: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
- Ps 90:7-9 : 7 For we are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath are we troubled. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 9 For all our days are passed away in your wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. 10 The days of our years are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their strength is labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
- Ps 90:15 : 15 Make us glad according to the days wherein you have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Similar Verses (AI)
These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.
- Eccl 2:17-226 verses86%
17 Therefore I hated life, because the work that was done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
18 Yes, I hated all my labor that I had labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me.
19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I have labored and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
20 Therefore I turned my heart to despair over all the labor which I had done under the sun.
21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill. Yet he must leave his inheritance to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22 For what has man from all his labor, and of the striving of his heart with which he has labored under the sun?
- Eccl 5:16-183 verses81%
16 And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go; and what profit has he who has labored for the wind?
17 All his days he also eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
18 Behold, what I have seen: it is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him; for it is his portion.
- Eccl 2:10-112 verses81%
10 And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor.
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor I had toiled to do; and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
- Eccl 1:2-32 verses79%
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit does a man have from all his labor which he does under the sun?
- 79%
4 Again, I considered all the toil and every right work, that for this a man is envied by his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Eccl 4:7-82 verses79%
7 Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.
8 There is one alone, without a second; yes, he has neither child nor brother, yet there is no end to all his labor, nor is his eye satisfied with riches, nor does he ask, 'For whom do I labor and deprive my soul of good?' This is also vanity, yes, it is a grievous toil.
- Eccl 2:24-263 verses79%
24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.
25 For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?
26 For God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to the man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and collecting, only to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Eccl 1:13-142 verses78%
13 And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this difficult task God has given to the children of man to be engaged with.
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
- 78%
8 But if a man lives many years, and rejoices in them all, let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that comes is vanity.
- 78%
16 There is no end of all the people, even of all who have been before them; they also that come after will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Eccl 8:14-174 verses78%
14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth: there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
15 So I commended joy, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun.
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the work that is done upon the earth (for there are those who neither day nor night see sleep with their eyes),
17 Then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. Even though a man labors to seek it out, he shall not find it; moreover, though a wise man thinks to know it, he shall not be able to find it.
- 76%
7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not satisfied.
- 76%
8 Vanity of vanities, says the preacher; all is vanity.
- 76%
22 Therefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what shall be after him?
- Eccl 6:11-122 verses75%
11 Since there are many things that increase vanity, what advantage does man have?
12 For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
- 75%
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for He gives His beloved sleep.
- Eccl 3:9-102 verses75%
9 What profit does he have who works in that which he labors?
10 I have seen the task which God has given to the sons of men to be occupied with.
- 75%
5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun nor known anything: this has more rest than the other.
- 75%
6 Surely every man walks in a vain show: surely they are troubled in vain: he heaps up riches, and does not know who shall gather them.
- 74%
22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.
- 74%
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity: for that is your portion in this life and in your labor which you take under the sun.
- 74%
3 So I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
- 74%
9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire: this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- 74%
2 A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wants nothing for his soul of all he desires, yet God does not give him the power to eat of it, but a stranger eats it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
- 74%
12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives.
- 74%
20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
- 74%
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that, they go to the dead.
- 73%
19 For that which befalls the sons of men also befalls beasts; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other; yes, they all have one breath; so that a man has no advantage over a beast: for all is vanity.
- 73%
23 Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.
- 73%
9 All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man rules over another to his own harm.
- 73%
17 And I set my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is a striving after wind.
- 73%
15 So I said in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, so it happens even to me. And why was I then more wise?" Then I said in my heart, "This also is vanity."