Ecclesiastes 1:13

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

And I applied myself by heart and mind to seek and search out by [human] wisdom all human activity under heaven. It is a miserable business which God has given to the sons of man with which to busy themselves.

Cross References

Genesis 3:19

In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.

Job 28:3

Man sets an end to darkness, and he searches out the farthest bounds for the ore buried in gloom and deep darkness.

Psalm 111:2

The works of the Lord are great, sought out by all those who have delight in them.

Proverbs 18:1

HE WHO willfully separates and estranges himself [from God and man] seeks his own desire and pretext to break out against all wise and sound judgment.

Proverbs 18:15

The mind of the prudent is ever getting knowledge, and the ear of the wise is ever seeking (inquiring for and craving) knowledge.

Proverbs 23:26

My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe and delight in my ways,

Proverbs 25:2

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a thing. [Deut. 29:29; Rom. 11:33.]

Proverbs 4:7

The beginning of Wisdom is: get Wisdom (skillful and godly Wisdom)! [For skillful and godly Wisdom is the principal thing.] And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation). [James 1:5.]

Ecclesiastes 1:17

And I gave my mind to know [practical] wisdom and to discern [the character of] madness and folly [in which men seem to find satisfaction]; I perceived that this also is a searching after wind and a feeding on it. [I Thess. 5:21.]

Ecclesiastes 11:5

As you know not what is the way of the wind, or how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a pregnant woman, even so you know not the work of God, Who does all.

Ecclesiastes 12:12

But about going further [than the words given by one Shepherd], my son, be warned. Of making many books there is no end [so do not believe everything you read], and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

For all his days are but pain and sorrow, and his work is a vexation and grief; his mind takes no rest even at night. This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!

Ecclesiastes 2:26

For to the person who pleases Him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and heaping up, that he may give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it.

Ecclesiastes 3:10

I have seen the painful labor and exertion and miserable business which God has given to the sons of men with which to exercise and busy themselves.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

Then I saw that all painful effort in labor and all skill in work comes from man's rivalry with his neighbor. This is also vanity, a vain striving after the wind and a feeding on it.

Ecclesiastes 4:8

Here is one alone–no one with him; he neither has child nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labor, neither is his eye satisfied with riches, neither does he ask, For whom do I labor and deprive myself of good? This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility); yes, it is a painful effort and an unhappy business. [Prov. 27:20; I John 2:16.]

Ecclesiastes 7:25

I turned about [penitent] and my heart was set to know and to search out and to seek [true] wisdom and the reason of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness [and what had led me into such wickedness and madness].

Ecclesiastes 8:9

All this have I seen while applying 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 own hurt or to the other man's.

1 Timothy 4:15

Practice and cultivate and meditate upon these duties; throw yourself wholly into them [as your ministry], so that your progress may be evident to everybody.