Ecclesiastes 4:8

World English Bible (2000)

There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. "For whom then, do I labor, and deprive my soul of enjoyment?" This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.

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Referenced Verses

  • Prov 27:20 : 20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; and a man's eyes are never satisfied.
  • Eccl 1:8 : 8 All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
  • Eccl 1:13 : 13 I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
  • Gen 2:18 : 18 Yahweh God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
  • Ps 39:6 : 6 "Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn't know who shall gather.
  • 1 John 2:16 : 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn't the Father's, but is the world's.
  • Eccl 4:9-9 : 9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. 10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn't have another to lift him up. 11 Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone? 12 If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
  • Eccl 5:10 : 10 He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.
  • Isa 5:8 : 8 Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!
  • Isa 44:19-20 : 19 No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?" 20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"
  • Isa 55:2 : 2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
  • Isa 56:3-5 : 3 Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, "Yahweh will surely separate me from his people;" neither let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." 4 For thus says Yahweh, "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant: 5 to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
  • Hab 2:5-9 : 5 Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. A haughty man who doesn't stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples. 6 Won't all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?' 7 Won't your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim? 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it. 9 Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
  • Matt 11:28 : 28 "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
  • Luke 12:20 : 20 "But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared--whose will they be?'
  • Gen 15:2-3 : 2 Abram said, "Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 Abram said, "Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir."
  • Eccl 2:23 : 23 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.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Eccl 4:6-7
    2 verses
    81%

    6 Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind.

    7 Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.

  • Eccl 2:10-11
    2 verses
    81%

    10 Whatever my eyes desired, I didn't keep from them. I didn't withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.

    11 Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

  • Eccl 4:15-16
    2 verses
    81%

    15 I saw all the living who walk under the sun, that they were with the youth, the other, who succeeded him.

    16 There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was--yet those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

  • Eccl 2:17-26
    10 verses
    81%

    17 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.

    18 I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

    19 Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of 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 began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.

    21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

    22 For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?

    23 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.

    24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.

    25 For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

    26 For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

  • Eccl 4:3-4
    2 verses
    80%

    3 Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

    4 Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man's neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

  • Eccl 1:2-3
    2 verses
    80%

    2 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

    3 What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?

  • Eccl 1:13-14
    2 verses
    77%

    13 I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

    14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

  • Eccl 4:9
    77%

    9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.

  • Eccl 6:11-12
    2 verses
    77%

    11 For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?

    12 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

  • Eccl 5:14-16
    3 verses
    77%

    14 Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.

    15 As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.

    16 This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind?

  • Eccl 3:9-10
    2 verses
    77%

    9 What profit has he who works in that in which he labors?

    10 I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

  • Eccl 6:7-9
    3 verses
    76%

    7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

    8 For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?

    9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

  • Eccl 12:8
    76%

    8 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher. "All is vanity!"

  • Eccl 3:22
    76%

    22 Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

  • Eccl 8:16-17
    2 verses
    76%

    16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),

    17 then I saw all the work of God, that man can't find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won't find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won't be able to find it.

  • Eccl 6:1-3
    3 verses
    76%

    1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:

    2 a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

    3 If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:

  • Eccl 1:8
    75%

    8 All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

  • Ps 39:6
    75%

    6 "Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn't know who shall gather.

  • Eccl 8:14
    75%

    14 There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous 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.

  • Eccl 5:10-11
    2 verses
    74%

    10 He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.

    11 When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes?

  • Eccl 8:9
    73%

    9 All this have I seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.

  • Eccl 3:12
    73%

    12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live.

  • Eccl 6:5
    72%

    5 Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.

  • Eccl 9:10
    72%

    10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.

  • Eccl 11:8
    72%

    8 Yes, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.