Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 11:10
So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Teacher addresses young men at the close of Ecclesiastes 11, immediately following a warning that God will judge youthful indulgence. He issues a final directive to prioritize mental and physical well-being while vitality remains.
The words — The Hebrew כַּעַס (ka'as) translates literally to "vexation" or "sorrow," and רָעָה (ra'ah) means "evil" or "pain." The text commands both terms to be actively removed from the heart and flesh.
The thread — The injunction to purge defilement from body and spirit parallels 2 Corinthians 7:1, while the call to reject youthful impulses mirrors 2 Timothy 2:22. Both cross-references treat moral discipline as a direct response to divine accountability.
Why it lands — The verse requires the deliberate rejection of grief and physical distress because youth and strength are temporary. It demands practical vigilance and immediate action rather than passive endurance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
- Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
- Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
- Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come and the years approach of which you will say, “I find no pleasure in them,”
- Job 20:11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
- Psalms 39:5 You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- Psalms 90:7 For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.
- 2 Peter 3:11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness
- Job 13:26 For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.