If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any spot has cleaved to my hands;
Ecclesiastes 6:9 - King James 2000 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and grasping after the wind. Tuilleadh leaganachaKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 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 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) 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 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 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. Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version Better it is to see what thou mayst desire, than to desire that which thou canst not know. But this also is vanity, and presumption of spirit. |
If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any spot has cleaved to my hands;
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and like grasping the wind.
And I set my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is like grasping the wind.
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth; and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes: but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had made, and on the labor that I had expended on it: and, behold, all was vanity and like grasping the wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
Again, I considered all toil, and every skillful work, that for this a man is envied by his neighbor. This is also vanity and grasping after the wind.
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and fitting for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he takes under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for this is his lot.
A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wants nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eats it: this is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.
For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.