Ecclesiastes 2:17

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Ecclesiastes 2:15–19 · Berean Standard Bible

15 So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.

16 For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

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.

18 I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

19 And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Numbers 11:15

If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

1 Kings 19:4

while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Job 3:20

Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

Job 3:21

who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,

Job 3:22

who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?

Job 7:15

so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.

Job 7:16

I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

Job 14:13

If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!

Jeremiah 20:14

Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.

Jeremiah 20:15

Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, saying, “A son is born to you,” bringing him great joy.

Jeremiah 20:16

May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. May he hear an outcry in the morning and a battle cry at noon,

Jeremiah 20:17

because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.

Jeremiah 20:18

Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?

Jonah 4:3

And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah 4:8

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Philippians 1:23

I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed.

Philippians 1:24

But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Philippians 1:25

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,

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.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.

Ezekiel 3:14

So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me.

Habakkuk 1:3

Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.

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.

Ecclesiastes 2:22

For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Psalms 89:47

Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!