If my step has strayed from the way, if my heart has walked after my eyes, or if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
Ecclesiastes 6:9 - Tree of Life Version Better is what the eyes see than the pursuit of the soul’s desires. This too is fleeting and striving after 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 strayed from the way, if my heart has walked after my eyes, or if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
I have seen all the deeds done under the sun; and behold, all is meaningless and chasing after the wind.
So I applied my heart to know wisdom as well as to know madness and folly. I learned that this too was pursuit of the wind.
Futile! Futile! says Kohelet. Completely meaningless! Everything is futile!
Rejoice, young man, in your childhood, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. 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 to judgment.
Yet when I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended to accomplish it, behold, it all was futile and chasing after the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Then I saw that all toil and all skill that is done come from man’s envy of his neighbor; this too is fleeting and striving after the wind.
Additionally, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, and empowers him to eat from it, to receive his share, and to rejoice in his labor—this is a gift of God.
God gives a man riches, wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing that his heart desires, yet God does not enable him to eat from it—instead a foreigner will eat it. This is fruitless—an agonizing illness.
“Indeed, long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve!’ Instead, on every high hill and under every green tree you sprawled out as a prostitute.