Ecclesiastes 1:13

New International Version

I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!

Cross References

Genesis 3:19

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Job 28:3

Mortals put an end to the darkness; they search out the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness.

Psalm 111:2

Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.

Proverbs 18:1

An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels.

Proverbs 18:15

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.

Proverbs 23:26

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

Proverbs 25:2

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

Proverbs 4:7

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

Ecclesiastes 1:17

Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

Ecclesiastes 11:5

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Ecclesiastes 12:12

Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Ecclesiastes 3:10

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:8

There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is meaningless— a miserable business!

Ecclesiastes 7:25

So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.

Ecclesiastes 8:9

All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.

1 Timothy 4:15

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.