Ecclesiastes 5:16

what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? The ever-recurring question (ch. Ecclesiastes 1:3; Ecclesiastes 2:22; Ecclesiastes 3:9) rises once again, "What profit?" In "labouring for the wind" we have a phrase almost identical with the "feeding on wind" or, as some render it, the "striving after the wind" which is the key-note of the whole book. As in Proverbs 11:29; Isaiah 26:18; Job 16:3 the "wind" is the emblem of emptiness and nothingness.