Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 3:9
What does the worker gain from his toil?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses humanity within the immediate literary moment of chapter 3, positioned after the catalog of contrasting seasons (love and hate, war and peace) and before the declaration of God’s burden on mankind.
The words — The Hebrew מַה־ (mah-) poses the question “what?” while יִּתְרוֹן (yit.rOn) translates to “profit” or “gain,” structuring the verse as a direct inquiry into the value of human effort.
The thread — The text’s question runs parallel to Ecclesiastes 1:3 regarding labor under the sun, contrasts with Proverbs 14:23’s statement that profit exists in all work, and reappears in Ecclesiastes 5:16 concerning the futility of departing with nothing gained.
Why it lands — The text states that human labor occurs within fixed cycles and a divinely imposed burden, and it asks the reader to evaluate whether earthly toil yields any lasting advantage.
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
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 1:3 What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?
- Proverbs 14:23 There is profit in all labor, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
- Ecclesiastes 5:16 This too is a grievous affliction: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?
- 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 2:22 For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?
- Matthew 16:26 What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?