Ecclesiastes 1:3

New International Version

What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

Cross References

Ecclesiastes 2:11

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:18

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.

Ecclesiastes 2:19

And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 2:22

What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 3:9

What do workers gain from their toil?

Ecclesiastes 4:3

But better than both is the one who has never been born, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 4:7

Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

Ecclesiastes 5:16

This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?

Ecclesiastes 5:18

This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.

Ecclesiastes 6:12

For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?

Ecclesiastes 7:11

Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:13

I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me:

Ecclesiastes 9:3

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

Ecclesiastes 9:6

Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

Isaiah 55:2

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Habakkuk 2:13

Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?

Habakkuk 2:18

“Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

Matthew 16:26

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

John 6:27

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

1 Corinthians 16:16

to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it.