Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 4:7
Again, I saw futility under the sun.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Preacher addresses an unspecified audience while reflecting on human labor and isolation immediately after describing the insatiable, solitary worker of Ecclesiastes 4:8. He speaks from a position of repeated observation, cataloging patterns of human endeavor.
The words — The phrase הֶבֶל תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ (Hevel tachat ha-shemesh) literally means "futility under the sun." The verb שַׁבְתִּי (shavti) translates to "I returned," marking a deliberate shift back to a recurring theme of observation.
The thread — This structural marker parallels Ecclesiastes 4:1, which opens with "Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun." The term futility (הֶבֶל) also appears in Psalms 78:33 to describe days ended in emptiness.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that relentless, isolated toil produces no lasting satisfaction. It asks the reader to measure their pursuits against the reality of unfulfilled accumulation.
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
Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 4:1 Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.
- Psalms 78:33 So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.
- Zechariah 1:6 But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”