Ecclesiastes 11:8 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

⁸ Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all, yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

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

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

⁸ Yes, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all; yet let him [seriously] remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that comes is vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility)!

American Standard Version (1901)

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

Common English Bible

⁸ Even those who live many years should take pleasure in them all. But they should be mindful that there will also be many dark days. Everything that happens is pointless.

Catholic Public Domain Version

⁸ If a man lives for many years, and if he has rejoiced in all of these, he must remember the many days of the dark times, which, when they will have arrived, will accuse the past of vanity.

Ecclesiastes 11:8 Cross References

John 12:35

Jesus said to them, “The light is in you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.

Deuteronomy 32:29

If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern what their end would be.

Joel 2:2

a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains, a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Ecclesiastes 7:14

In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that comes after them.

Jude 1:18

for they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.”

Jeremiah 13:16

Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness and before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight; while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

Ecclesiastes 8:15

So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 8:12

Though sinners do evil a hundred times and prolong their lives, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they stand in fear before him,

Ecclesiastes 6:11

The more words, the more vanity, so how is one the better?

Matthew 22:13

Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Ecclesiastes 6:6

Even though he should live a thousand years twice over yet enjoy no good—do not all go to one place?

Ecclesiastes 4:16

there was no end to all those people whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:8

the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. “For whom am I toiling,” they ask, “and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:19

and who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 2:17

So I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:15

Then I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity.

Job 18:18

They are thrust from light into darkness and driven out of the world.

Job 15:23

They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;

Job 14:10

But mortals die and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they?

Job 10:22

the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness.’ ”

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Go, eat your bread with enjoyment and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has long ago approved what you do.

Ecclesiastes 11:2

Divide your means seven ways, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth.

Job 10:21

before I go, never to return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

Job 14:12

so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep.

Psalm 49:20

Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.