Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 4:16
There is no limit to all the people who were before them. Yet the successor will not be celebrated by those who come even later. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Preacher addresses an unspecified audience while reflecting on the cycle of political succession and public adulation. He observes that crowds who enthusiastically follow a new ruler will soon forget him once another arises.
The words — The opening phrase uses אֵין (’ên) and קֵץ (qetz), literally meaning "there is no end." These terms frame the endless succession of leaders and the inevitable obscurity that follows each one.
The thread — The concept of unending historical cycles and forgotten rulers appears in Ecclesiastes 1:14 and Ecclesiastes 2:17, which both label human endeavors as futile. The pattern of public celebration is echoed in 1 Kings 1:40, where masses follow a new king with loud rejoicing.
Why it lands — The text states that no successor escapes eventual obscurity, regardless of initial acclaim. It demands recognition that human fame is temporary and ultimately worthless without enduring purpose.
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
There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Cross-references
- 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.
- 1 Kings 1:40 All the people followed him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth was split by the sound.
- 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.
- Judges 9:19 if you have acted faithfully and honestly toward Jerubbaal and his house this day, then may you rejoice in Abimelech, and he in you.
- 2 Samuel 15:12 While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from his hometown of Giloh. So the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept increasing.
- 2 Samuel 18:7 There the people of Israel were defeated by David’s servants, and the slaughter was great that day—twenty thousand men.
- 2 Samuel 19:9 And all the people throughout the tribes of Israel were arguing, “The king rescued us from the hand of our enemies and delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the land because of Absalom.
- 1 Kings 1:5 At that time Adonijah, David’s son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, “I will be king!” And he acquired chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run ahead of him.
- 1 Kings 12:10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!
- 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.