Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 2:17
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses an unnamed audience while cataloging the results of his own exhaustive labor, speaking immediately after observing that both the wise and the fool will inevitably be forgotten. He voices this conclusion at the midpoint of his examination of earthly toil.
The words — The Hebrew term שָׂנֵאתִי (sa.Ne.ti) translates literally as "I hated," expressing a direct emotional rejection. It governs אֶת־ הַחַיִּים (et- ha.chai.Yim), "life," anchoring the speaker’s visceral response to the futility of his labors.
The thread — This declaration of life’s grievous futility runs directly into Ecclesiastes 2:11, where the same speaker evaluates his works and finds them empty, and into Ecclesiastes 4:2, which ranks the dead above the living who bear this burden. The phrase "pursuit of the wind" also mirrors the broader biblical motif of vain striving found in the surrounding verses.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that measuring human effort solely against mortality strips it of lasting value. It demands a clear-eyed assessment of work done "under the sun" before any theological resolution is applied.
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 I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 2:11 Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 4:2 So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.
- Jonah 4:8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- Numbers 11:15 If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”
- 1 Kings 19:4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
- Job 3:20 Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
- Job 7:15 so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.
- Job 14:13 If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!
- Psalms 89:47 Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!
- 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.