Ecclesiastes 2:23
New International Version
All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

New Living Translation
Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.

English Standard Version
For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

Berean Standard Bible
Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

King James Bible
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

New King James Version
For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

New American Standard Bible
Because all his days his activity is painful and irritating; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is futility.

NASB 1995
Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.

NASB 1977
Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.

Legacy Standard Bible
Because all his days his endeavor is painful and vexing; even at night his heart does not lie down. This too is vanity.

Amplified Bible
For all his days his work is painful and sorrowful; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity (worthless).

Christian Standard Bible
For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

American Standard Version
For all his days are but sorrows, and his travail is grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For all his days are sorrow and his work is grief, also his heart at night does not lie down, and this also is futility

Brenton Septuagint Translation
For all his days are days of sorrows, and vexation of spirit is his; in the night also his heart rests not. This is also vanity.

Contemporary English Version
Our bodies ache during the day, and work is torture. Then at night our thoughts are troubled. It just doesn't make sense.

Douay-Rheims Bible
All his days axe full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?

English Revised Version
For all his days are but sorrows, and his travail is grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Their entire life is filled with pain, and their work is unbearable. Even at night their minds don't rest. Even this is pointless.

Good News Translation
As long as you live, everything you do brings nothing but worry and heartache. Even at night your mind can't rest. It is all useless.

International Standard Version
Indeed, all of his days are filled with sorrow, and his struggles bring grief. In fact, his mind remains restless throughout the night. This is pointless, too!

JPS Tanakh 1917
For all his days are pains, and his occupation vexation; yea, even in the night his heart taketh not rest. This also is vanity.

Literal Standard Version
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail sadness; even at night his heart has not lain down; this [is] also vanity.

Majority Standard Bible
Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

New American Bible
Every day sorrow and grief are their occupation; even at night their hearts are not at rest. This also is vanity.

NET Bible
For all day long his work produces pain and frustration, and even at night his mind cannot relax! This also is futile!

New Revised Standard Version
For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.

New Heart English Bible
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

Webster's Bible Translation
For all his days are sorrows, and his labor grief; yes, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

World English Bible
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

Young's Literal Translation
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail sadness; even at night his heart hath not lain down; this also is vanity.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Futility of Work
22For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun? 23Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile. 24Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.…

Cross References
Genesis 3:17
And to Adam He said: "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

Job 5:7
Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

Job 14:1
"Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.

Psalm 127:2
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat--for He gives sleep to His beloved.

Ecclesiastes 1:13
And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

Ecclesiastes 1:18
For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases.

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.


Treasury of Scripture

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yes, his heart takes not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

all

Genesis 47:9
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

Job 5:7
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

Job 14:1
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

his heart

Ecclesiastes 5:12
The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

Esther 6:1
On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.

Job 7:13,14
When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; …

Jump to Previous
Full Grief Grievous Heart Labor Mind Night Occupation Pain Painful Pains Purpose Rest Sadness Sorrow Sorrows Task Travail Vanity Vexation Work
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Full Grief Grievous Heart Labor Mind Night Occupation Pain Painful Pains Purpose Rest Sadness Sorrow Sorrows Task Travail Vanity Vexation Work
Ecclesiastes 2
1. the vanity of human courses is the work of pleasure
12. Though the wise be better than the fool, yet both have one event
18. The vanity of human labor, in leaving it they know not to whom
24. Nothing better than joy in our labor but that is God's gift














(23) The fact that the wise man must surrender his acquisitions exhibits the inutility of the painful toil by which he has gained them.

Verse 23. - All his days are sorrow, and his travail grief (comp. Ecclesiastes 5:16, 17). These are the real results of his lifelong efforts. All his days are pains and sorrows, bring trouble with them, and all his labor ends in grief. "Sorrows" and "grief" are pretreated respectively of "days" and "travail." Abstract nouns are often so used. Thus Ecclesiastes 10:12, "The words of a wise man's mouth are grace." The free-thinkers in Wisd. 2:1 complain that life is short and tedious (λυπηρὸς). Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. He cannot sleep for thinking over his plans and hopes and disappointments. Not for him is the sweet sleep of the laboring man, who does his day's work, earns his repose, and frets not about the future. On the one hand care, on the ether satiety, murder sleep, and make the night torment.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Indeed,
כִּ֧י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

all
כָל־ (ḵāl)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

his days
יָמָ֣יו (yā·māw)
Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

are filled with grief,
מַכְאֹבִ֗ים (maḵ·’ō·ḇîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 4341: Anguish, affliction

and his task
עִנְיָנ֔וֹ (‘in·yā·nōw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 6045: Ado, employment, an affair

is sorrowful;
וָכַ֙עַס֙ (wā·ḵa·‘as)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3708: Vexation, anger

even
גַּם־ (gam-)
Conjunction
Strong's 1571: Assemblage, also, even, yea, though, both, and

at night,
בַּלַּ֖יְלָה (bal·lay·lāh)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3915: A twist, night, adversity

his mind
לִבּ֑וֹ (lib·bōw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 3820: The heart, the feelings, the will, the intellect, centre

does not
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

rest.
שָׁכַ֣ב (šā·ḵaḇ)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7901: To lie down

This
זֶ֖ה (zeh)
Pronoun - masculine singular
Strong's 2088: This, that

too
גַּם־ (gam-)
Conjunction
Strong's 1571: Assemblage, also, even, yea, though, both, and

is futile.
הֶ֥בֶל (he·ḇel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1892: Emptiness, vanity, transitory, unsatisfactory


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 2:23 For all his days are sorrows (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
Ecclesiastes 2:22
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