Ecclesiastes 6:9 - Revised Version with Apocrypha 1895

⁹ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

⁹ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

⁹ Better is the sight of the eyes [the enjoyment of what is available to one] than the cravings of wandering desire. This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it!

American Standard Version (1901)

⁹ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Common English Bible

⁹ It’s better to enjoy what’s at hand than to have an insatiable appetite. This too is pointless, just wind chasing.

Catholic Public Domain Version

⁹ It is better to see what you desire, than to desire what you cannot know. But this, too, is emptiness and a presumption of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 6:9 Cross References

Ecclesiastes 1:14

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

Job 31:7

If my step hath turned out of the way, And mine heart walked after mine eyes, And if any spot hath cleaved to mine hands:

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement.

Ecclesiastes 6:2

a man to whom God giveth riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacketh nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it; this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

Ecclesiastes 5:18

Behold, that which I have seen to be good and to be comely is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour, wherein he laboureth under the sun, all the days of his life which God hath given him: for this is his portion.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

Then I saw all labour and every skilful work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

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 a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:2

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Jeremiah 2:20

For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou didst bow thyself, playing the harlot.

Ecclesiastes 1:17

And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.