Ecclesiastes 12:8

Good News Translation

Useless, useless, said the Philosopher. It is all useless.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile.”

Hebrew Names Version
Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet; All is vanity!

King James Version
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

English Standard Version
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

New American Standard Bible
"Futility of futilities," says the Preacher, "all is futility!"

New Century Version
Everything is useless! The Teacher says that everything is useless.

Amplified Bible
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher. "All [that is done without God's guidance] is vanity (futility)."

World English Bible
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; All is vanity!

Geneva Bible (1587)
Vanitie of vanities, saieth the Preacher, all is vanitie.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is vanity!"

Berean Standard Bible
"Futility of futilities," says the Teacher. "Everything is futile!"

Contemporary English Version
Nothing makes sense. I have seen it all— nothing makes sense.

Complete Jewish Bible
Pointless! Meaningless! — says Kohelet, Nothing matters at all!

Darby Translation
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher: all is vanity.

Easy-to-Read Version
Everything is so meaningless. The Teacher says that it is all a waste of time!

George Lamsa Translation
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity.

Lexham English Bible
"Vanity of vanity!" says the Teacher. "Everything is vanity!"

Literal Translation
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
All is but vanite (sayeth the preacher) all is but playne vanite.

American Standard Version
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.

Bible in Basic English
All things are to no purpose, says the Preacher, all is to no purpose.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth; all is vanity.

King James Version (1611)
Uanitie of vanities (saith the preacher) all is vanitie.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
All is but vanitie (saith the preacher) all is but playne vanitie.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher; all is vanity.

English Revised Version
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The vanyte of vanytees, seide Ecclesiastes, the vanyte of vanytees, and alle thingis ben vanyte.

Update Bible Version
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

Webster's Bible Translation
Vanity of vanities saith the preacher; all [is] vanity.

New English Translation
"Absolutely futile!" laments the Teacher, "All of these things are futile!"

New King James Version
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "All is vanity."

New Living Translation
"Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "completely meaningless."

New Life Bible
"It is of no use," says the Preacher, "It is all for nothing!"

New Revised Standard
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Vanity of vanities, saith the Proclaimer, all, is vanity.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, and all things are vanity.

Revised Standard Version
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

Young's Literal Translation
Vanity of vanities, said the preacher, the whole [is] vanity.

THE MESSAGE
It's all smoke, nothing but smoke. The Quester says that everything's smoke.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is vanity!"

Contextual Overview

⁸ Useless, useless, said the Philosopher. It is all useless. ⁹ But because the Philosopher was wise, he kept on teaching the people what he knew. He studied proverbs and honestly tested their truth. ¹⁰ The Philosopher tried to find comforting words, but the words he wrote were honest. ¹¹ The sayings of the wise are like the sharp sticks that shepherds use to guide sheep, and collected proverbs are as lasting as firmly driven nails. They have been given by God, the one Shepherd of us all. ¹² My child, there is something else to watch out for. There is no end to the writing of books, and too much study will wear you out.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Ecclesiastes 1:2, Ecclesiastes 1:14, Ecclesiastes 2:17, Ecclesiastes 4:4, Ecclesiastes 6:12, Ecclesiastes 8:8, Psalms 62:9

Reciprocal: Psalms 39:6 - surely Psalms 78:33 - years Psalms 119:96 - I have seen Psalms 144:4 - Man Proverbs 23:5 - that which Ecclesiastes 7:14 - set Ecclesiastes 7:27 - saith Jeremiah 2:13 - broken cisterns Matthew 13:45 - seeking 1 Corinthians 7:29 - that both 1 Timothy 2:7 - a preacher

Cross-References

Genesis 4:26
Seth had a son whom he named Enosh. It was then that people began using the Lord 's holy name in worship.

Genesis 12:12
When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live.

Genesis 12:14
When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful.

Genesis 12:15
Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace.

Genesis 12:16
Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.

Genesis 13:4
and had built an altar. There he worshiped the Lord .

Genesis 21:33
Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped the Lord , the Everlasting God.

Genesis 28:19
He named the place Bethel. (The town there was once known as Luz.)

Genesis 35:3
We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone."

Joshua 7:2
Joshua sent some men from Jericho to Ai, a city east of Bethel, near Bethaven, with orders to go and explore the land. When they had done so,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher,.... The wise man, or preacher, set out in the beginning of the book with this doctrine, or proposition, which he undertook to prove; and now having proved it by an induction of particulars, instanced in the wisdom, wealth, honours, pleasures, and profit of men, and shown the vanity of them, and that the happiness of men lies not in these things, but in the knowledge and fear of God; he repeats it, and most strongly asserts it, as an undoubted truth beyond all dispute and contradiction, that all things under the sun are not only vain, but vanity itself, extremely vain, vain in the superlative degree;

all [is] vanity; all things in the world are vain; all creatures are subject to vanity; man in every state, and in his best estate, is altogether vanity: this the wise man might with great confidence affirm, after he had shown that not only childhood and youth are vanity, but even old age; the infirmities, sorrows, and distresses of which he had just exposed, and observed that all issue in death, the last end of man, when his body returns to the earth, and his soul to God the giver of it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This passage is properly regarded as the Epilogue of the whole book; a kind of apology for the obscurity of many of its sayings. The passage serves therefore to make the book more intelligible and more acceptable.

Here, as in the beginning of the book Ecclesiastes 1:1-2, the Preacher speaks of himself Ecclesiastes 12:8-10 in the third person. He first repeats Ecclesiastes 12:8 the mournful, perplexing theme with which his musings began Ecclesiastes 1:2; and then states the encouraging practical conclusion Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 to which they have led him. It has been pointed out that the Epilogue assumes the identity of the Preacher with the writer of the Book of Proverbs.

Ecclesiastes 12:11

literally, Words of wise men are as goads, and as nails driven in (by) masters of assemblies; they are given from one shepherd: “goads,” because they rouse the hearer and impel him to right actions; “nails” (perhaps tent-spikes), because they remain fixed in the memory: “masters of assemblies” are simply “teachers” or “preachers” (see Ecclesiastes 1:1 note), instructors of such assemblies as Wisdom addresses Proverbs 1:20.

One shepherd - i. e., God, who is the supreme Giver of wisdom Proverbs 2:6, and the chief Shepherd Jeremiah 23:1-4. Compare 1 Corinthians 2:12-13.

Ecclesiastes 12:12

By these - i. e., “By the words of wise men.”

Books - Rather, “Writings.” Probably the proverbs current in the Preacher’s age, including, though not especially indicating, his own.

The Preacher protests against the folly of protracted, unprofitable, meditation.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

literally, “The conclusion of the discourse” (or “word,” = words, Ecclesiastes 1:1), “the whole, let us hear.”

The whole duty of man - Rather, the whole man. To revere God and to obey Him is the whole man, constitutes man’s whole being; that only is conceded to Man; all other things, as this book teaches again and again, are dependent on a Higher Incomprehensible Being.

Ecclesiastes 12:14

Judgment with - Rather, judgment (which shall be held) upon etc.: i. e., an appointed judgment which shall take place in another world, as distinct from that retribution which frequently follows man’s actions in the course of this world, and which is too imperfect (compare Ecclesiastes 2:15; Ecclesiastes 4:1; Ecclesiastes 7:15; Ecclesiastes 9:2, ...) to be described by these expressions. He that is fully convinced that there is no solid happiness to be found in this world, and that there is a world to come wherein God will adjudge people to happiness or misery respectively, as they have made their choice and acted here, must necessarily subscribe to the truth of Solomon’s conclusion, that true religion is the only way to true happiness.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 12:8. This affecting and minute description of old age and death is concluded by the author with the same exclamation by which he began this book: O vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth, all is vanity. Now that man, the masterpiece of God's creation, the delegated sovereign of this lower world, is turned to dust, what is there stable or worthy of contemplation besides? ALL - ALL is VANITY!