Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 11:8
So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Teacher addresses humanity within a practical wisdom discourse, positioned between the command to enjoy life’s visible blessings in verse 7 and the warning to youth about future divine judgment in verse 9.
The words — The Hebrew `יִשְׂמַח` (yis.Mach) commands someone to take pleasure, while `הַרְבֵּה` (har.Beh) denotes a multitude or many, framing the verse’s tension between prolonged life and its approaching end.
The thread — This motif of walking while light remains appears in John 12:35, and the paired reality of prosperity and adversity is echoed in Ecclesiastes 7:14, while Deuteronomy 32:29 underscores the human need to comprehend such fated patterns.
Why it lands — The text commands the reader to enjoy every year of a long life while simultaneously acknowledging that dark days will outnumber them, concluding that future events lack lasting substance.
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
But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.
Cross-references
- John 12:35 Then Jesus told them, “For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.
- Deuteronomy 32:29 If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
- Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this: God has made one of these along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him.
- Joel 2:2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
- Job 14:10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- Ecclesiastes 6:11 For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?
- Ecclesiastes 8:12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.
- Ecclesiastes 8:15 So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.
- 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,”
- Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.