Canticum Canticorum 1:7

Nova Vulgata

Omnia flumina pergunt ad mare, et mare non redundat; ad locum, unde exeunt, flumina illuc revertuntur in cursu suo.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Timor Domini principium sapienti� ; sapientiam atque doctrinam stulti despiciunt.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Omnia flumina intrant in mare,
et mare non redundat;
ad locum unde exeunt flumina
revertuntur ut iterum fluant.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the rivers run: Job 38:10, Job 38:11, Psalms 104:6-9

return again: Heb. return to go

Reciprocal: Genesis 1:9 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea [is] not full,.... Which flow from fountains or an formed by hasty rains; these make their way to the sea, yet the sea is not filled therewith, and made to abound and overflow the earth, as it might be expected it would. So Seneca says z we wonder that the accession of rivers is not perceived in the sea; and Lucretius a observes the same, that it is wondered at that the sea should not increase, when there is such a flow of waters to it from all quarters; besides the wandering showers and flying storms that fall into it, and yet scarce increased a drop; which he accounts for by the exhalations of the sun, by sweeping and drying winds, and by what the clouds take up. Homer b makes every sea, all the rivers, fountains, and wells, flow, from the main ocean. Hence Pindar c calls the lake or fountain Camarina the daughter of the ocean But Virgil d makes the rivers to flow into it, as the wise man here; with which Aristotle e agrees. So Lactantius f says, "mare quod ex fluminibus constat", the sea consists of rivers. Both may be true, for, through secret passages under ground, the waters of it are caused to pass back again to their respective places from whence they flowed, as follows;

unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again; this also illustrates the succession of men, age after age, and the revolution of things in the world, their unquiet and unsettled state; and the unsatisfying nature of all things; as the sea is never full with what comes into it, so the mind of man is never satisfied with all the riches and honour he gains, or the knowledge of natural things he acquires; and it suggests that even water, as fluctuating a body as it is, yet has the advantage of men; that though it is always flowing and reflowing, yet it returns to its original place, which man does not. And from all these instances it appears that all things are vanity, and man has no profit of all his labour under the sun.

z Nat. Quaest. l. 3. c. 4. a De Rerum Natura, l. 6. b Iliad. 21. v. 193, &c. c Olymp. Ode 5. v. 4. d "Omnia sub magna", &c. Georgic. l. 4. v. 366, &c. e Meterolog. l. 1. c. 13. f De Orig. Error. l. 2. c. 6.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The place - i. e., The spring or river-head. It would seem that the ancient Hebrews regarded the clouds as the immediate feeders of the springs (Proverbs 8:28, and Psalms 104:10, Psalms 104:13). Genesis 2:6 indicates some acquaintance with the process and result of evaporation.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 1:7. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full — The reason is, nothing goes into it either by the; rivers or by rain, that does not come from it: and to the place whence the rivers come, whether from the sea originally by evaporation, or immediately by rain, thither they return again; for the water exhaled from the sea by evaporation is collected in the clouds, and in rain, c., falls upon the tops of the mountains and, filtered through their fissures, produce streams, several of which uniting, make rivers, which flow into the sea. The water is again evaporated by the sun; the vapours collected are precipitated; and, being filtered through the earth, become streams, &c., as before.