Ecclesiastes 1:3

Good News Translation

You spend your life working, laboring, and what do you have to show for it?

Cross References

Ecclesiastes 2:11

Then I thought about all that I had done and how hard I had worked doing it, and I realized that it didn't mean a thing. It was like chasing the wind—of no use at all.

Ecclesiastes 2:18

Nothing that I had worked for and earned meant a thing to me, because I knew that I would have to leave it to my successor,

Ecclesiastes 2:19

and he might be wise, or he might be foolish—who knows? Yet he will own everything I have worked for, everything my wisdom has earned for me in this world. It is all useless.

Ecclesiastes 2:22

You work and worry your way through life, and what do you have to show for it?

Ecclesiastes 3:9

What do we gain from all our work?

Ecclesiastes 4:3

But better off than either are those who have never been born, who have never seen the injustice that goes on in this world.

Ecclesiastes 4:7

I have noticed something else in life that is useless.

Ecclesiastes 5:16

It isn't right! We go just as we came. We labor, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get?

Ecclesiastes 5:18

Here is what I have found out: the best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for during the short life that God has given us; this is our fate.

Ecclesiastes 6:12

How can anyone know what is best for us in this short, useless life of ours—a life that passes like a shadow? How can we know what will happen in the world after we die?

Ecclesiastes 7:11

Everyone who lives ought to be wise; it is as good as receiving an inheritance

Ecclesiastes 9:13

There is something else I saw, a good example of how wisdom is regarded in this world.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

One fate comes to all alike, and this is as wrong as anything that happens in this world. As long as people live, their minds are full of evil and madness, and suddenly they die.

Ecclesiastes 9:6

Their loves, their hates, their passions, all died with them. They will never again take part in anything that happens in this world.

Isaiah 55:2

Why spend money on what does not satisfy? Why spend your wages and still be hungry? Listen to me and do what I say, and you will enjoy the best food of all.

Habakkuk 2:13

The nations you conquered wore themselves out in useless labor, and all they have built goes up in flames. The Lord Almighty has done this.

Habakkuk 2:18

What's the use of an idol? It is only something that a human being has made, and it tells you nothing but lies. What good does it do for its maker to trust it—a god that can't even talk!

Matthew 16:26

Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! There is nothing you can give to regain your life.

John 6:27

Do not work for food that spoils; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.”

1 Corinthians 16:16

to follow the leadership of such people as these, and of anyone else who works and serves with them.