Ecclesiastes 1:8

All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. ALL THINGS (ARE) FULL OF LABOUR; MAN CANNOT UTTER (IT) - rather, All words are wearied out i:e., are inadequate, as also, 'man cannot express by words' the misery of human vanity in this ceaseless, changeless cycle of labour for that which satisfieth not. "No new" good can accrue from it (Ecclesiastes 1:9); for as the sun, etc., so man's labrious works move in a changeless cycle. The 'eye' and 'ear' are two of the taskmasters for which man toils. But these are never 'satisfied' (Ecclesiastes 4:8; Ecclesiastes 6:7;...

4-8 All things change, and never rest. Man, after all his labour, is no nearer finding rest than the sun, the wind, or the current of the river. His soul will find no rest, if he has it not from God. The senses are soon tired, yet still craving what is untried....

Verse Ecclesiastes 1:8. _ALL THINGS_ ARE _FULL OF LABOUR_] It is; impossible to calculate how much anxiety, pain, labour, and fatigue are necessary in order to carry on the _common operations of life_. But an _endless desire of gain_, and an _endless curiosity_ to _witness_ a variety of results, cause men to, labour on. The _eye_ sees much, but wishes to see more. The _ear_ hears of many things; but is curious to have the actual knowledge of them. So _desire_ and _curiosity_ carry men, under the Divine providence, through all the labours and pains of life....

ALL THINGS ... UTTER IT - This clause, as here translated, refers to the immensity of labor. Others translate it, “all words are full of labor; they make weary the hearers,” or “are feeble or insufficient” to tell the whole; and are referred to the impossibility of adequately describing labor....

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 1:1 THE TITLE. THE WORDS OF THE PREACHER, THE SON OF DAVID, KING IN JERUSALEM; Septuagint, "King of Israel in Jerusalem" (comp.Ecclesiastes 1:12). The word rendered "Preacher" is _Koheleth_,_ _a feminine noun formed from a verb _kalal_,_ _"to call" (see Introduction, § 1), and perhaps better rendered" Convener" or "Debater." It is found nowhere else but in this book, where it occurs three times in this chapter (Ecclesiastes 1:1, Ecclesiastes 1:2,...

ALL THINGS [ARE] FULL OF LABOUR,.... Or "are laborious" g; gotten by labour, and attended with fatigue and weariness; riches are got by labour, and those who load themselves with thick clay, as gold and silver be, weary themselves with it; honour and glory, crowns and kingdoms, are weighty cares, and very fatiguing to those that have them; much study to acquire knowledge is a weariness to the flesh; and as men even weary themselves to commit iniquity, it is no wonder that religious exercises should be a weariness to a natural man, and a carnal professor; MAN CANNOT UTTER [IT]; or declare all the things that are laborious and fatiguing, nor all the labour they are full of; time would fail, and words be wanting to express the whole; all the vanity, unprofitableness, and unsatisfying nature of all things below the sun; particularly THE EYE IS NOT SATISFIED WITH SEEING, NOR THE EAR FILLED...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS PART I. Chapter S 1-6 1. The Prologue and the Search Begun CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The introduction and prologue (Ecclesiastes 1:1)_ 2. The seeker; his method and the results (Ecclesiastes 1:12) Ecclesiastes 1:1. In the general introduction we have already referred to the opening verses as giving the information who the author is and what is the object of his treatise. So sure is the critical school that Solomon is not the king mentioned that one says “the fact that Solomon is not the author, but is introduced in a literary figure, has become such an axiom of the present day interpretation of the book, that no extended argument to prove

ECCLESIASTES 1:2 may be called an introduction to the book; it also presents the writer's conclusions. He has surveyed life from many angles and decided that all human effort is fruitless and unavailing, or as he puts it, vanity. This is his key-word (the Hebrew means vapour, breath, and so nothingness): it occurs forty times. VANITY OF VANITIES is the Heb. way of saying utmost vanity. Man toils under the sun, _i.e._ upon the earth, but reaps no gain; like players on a stage the ever-changing generations come and go, while the earth, man's scene of toil, abides. As with man so with nature; sun, winds (north and south, _cf._ Ca. Ecclesiastes 4:16), streams, all pursue a dreary round of endless repetition and accomplish nothing, _e.g._ the sea is never filled. The whole

LABOUR. weariness. MAN. Hebrew. _'ish._ App-14. THE EYE. Some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, and Syriac, read "and the eye"....

_All things are full of labour_ The Hebrew _dabar_may mean either "word" or "thing," and so the sentence admits equally of this or the nearly equivalent rendering, ALL THINGS ARE WEARY WITH TOIL and ALL WORDS ARE FEEBLE, and each gives, it is obvious, a fairly tenable meaning. The first generalizes as by an induction from the previous instances, that all things (especially, _i. e._all human affairs) are alike "stale, flat and unprofitable." The latter stops in the induction to say that all speech is feeble, that time and strength would fail to go through the catalogue. On the whole, looking to the fact that the verb "utter" is cognate in form with the word translated "things," the latter seems more closely in harmony with the context. We might fairly express the force of the Hebrew by saying ALL SPEECH FAILS; MAN CANNOT SPEAK IT. The seeming tautology gives the sentence the emphasis of i...