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Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

Ecclesiastes 1:8

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.

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See also Ecclesiastes 1:8 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    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...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    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 (Ecc...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    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 unavaili...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

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

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _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 A...

  • Charles Box Commentaries

    _THINGS CONTINUALLY CHANGE YET REMAIN THE SAME -- ECCLESIASTES 1:5-8:_ Solomon pictured man as being like nature, changing quickly but continually remaining the same. The runner is quick to find the c...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    ALL THINGS ARE FULL OF LABOUR— _All these considerations are wearisome._ Desvoeux....

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    2. Compared with the world, man is transitory and all his efforts are futile. Ecclesiastes 1:4-8 TEXT 1:4-8 4 A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 Also, the...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    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 a...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    ALL IS VANITY 1-11. The writer describes himself. He declares that all things are transitory and without result, whether they be the works or the life of man, or the natural forces of heat, air, and...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    ALL THINGS _are_ FULL OF LABOUR] RM 'all words are' too 'feeble' to set forth the case, so vast is the subject....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE TEACHER SEARCHES FOR THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ ABOUT THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES THE AUTHOR The word ‘Ecclesiastes’ tells us about the author...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    (3-11) Man is perpetually toiling, yet of all his toil there remains no abiding result. The natural world exhibits a spectacle of unceasing activity, with no real progress. The sun, the winds, the wat...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    This verse is capable of another translation which would give the sense “other instances of the same kind might be mentioned, but they are so numerous that it would be wearisome to recount them,” We a...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    כָּל ־הַ דְּבָרִ֣ים יְגֵעִ֔ים לֹא ־יוּכַ֥ל אִ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE PROLOGUE In Which The Problem Of The Book Is Indirectly Stated Ecclesiastes 1:1 THE search for the _ summum bonum_, the quest of the Chief Good, is the theme of the book Ecclesiastes. Naturally...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    THE TESTIMONY OF AN UNSATISFIED SOUL Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 _All is vanity_! This cry finds an echo in human hearts of every age and clime. Clod meant man to be happy. “These things,” said our Lord, “I...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    The first verse of this chapter introduces us to the author of the Book. Taken in conjunction with verse Ecclesiastes 1:12, it leaves no room for doubt that he is Solomon. In stating his theme he empl...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Hearing. In all sciences there are many difficulties. If a man had arrived at perfect knowledge, his researches would cease._...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? (4) One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever. (5) The sun also ariseth, and the...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 1 THROUGH 12. The Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the converse of the Book of Proverbs. (see NOTE TO PROVERBS below) It is the experience of a...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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 a...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    All things [are] full of labour; man cannot utter [it]: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Ver. 8. _All things are full of labour._] _Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _All things_ Not only the sun, and winds, and rivers, but all other creatures; _are full of labour_ They are in continual restlessness and change, never abiding in the same state. _The eye is not sati...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    All things are full of labor, full of trouble, weariness, fatigue on account of the curse following sin, Genesis 3:19; MAN CANNOT UTTER IT, the endlessness and burden of human troubles cannot be told...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    GENERAL INTRODUCTION...

  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

    "ALL THINGS ARE WEARISOME; MAN IS NOT ABLE TO TELL IT. THE EYE IS NOT SATISFIED WITH SEEING, NOR IS THE EAR FILLED WITH HEARING."ALL THINGS ARE WEARISOME" -But what is true is nature is also true amon...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    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....

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    ALL THINGS, not only the sun, and winds, and rivers, which I have mentioned, but all other creatures, _are full of labour_; both subjectively, as they are in continual restlessness and change, never a...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Ecclesiastes 1:8 things H1697 labor H3023 Man H376 cannot H3201 (H8799) express H1696 (H8763) eye H5869 satisf

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE MEANINGLESSNESS OF WHAT MEN SEEK TO ACCOMPLISH COMES OUT IN THE FACT THAT LIFE SIMPLY FOLLOWS A CONTINUAL UNCHANGING REPETITION. IT IS PURPOSELESS AND BORING AND UNENLIGHTENING AND ACCOMPLISHES NO...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 1:4 I. It is universally acknowledged that the circle is the archetype of all forms, physically as well as mathematically. It is the most complete figure, the most stable under violence,...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 1:2 I. This passage is the preamble to the book; it ushers us at once into its realms of dreariness. It is as if he said, "It is all a weary go-round. There are no novelties, no wonders,...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 1:1 The search for the _summum bonum_, the quest of the chief good, is the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes. Naturally we look to find this theme, this problem, this "riddle of the painf...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: The doctrine of the vanity of the creature, and the impossibility of finding satisfaction without God. CHARACTERS: God, Solomon. CONCLUSION: All things, considered as abstract from God, an...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Ecclesiastes 1:2. _Vanity of vanities._ This is the Hebrew form of the superlative degree of comparison; as, the heaven of heavens, the song of songs, &c. He adds, “vexation of spirit,” because his re...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh._ THE LAW OF CIRCULARITY, OR RETROGRESSION, AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF PROGRESS The circle is the archetype of all forms, physically as well a...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _The eye is not satisfied with seeing._ THE UNSATISFIED EYE This fact is selected as an instance of man’s profitless curiosity, as a symbol of the insatiable-ness of the human mind. My remarks will,...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ECCLESIASTES—NOTE ON ECCLESIASTES 1:4 First Catalog of “Vanities.” The Preacher gives specific examples to prove his belief that all is “vanity.”...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— ECCLESIASTES 1:2. VANITY.] The Hebrew word is Hebel (Abel) the name given to one of the sons of Adam. The subjection of the whole creation to vanity was soon observed and felt. ECCLE...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    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...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Book of Ecclesiastes begins, The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes 1:1). So that identifies the author as Solomon. The Hebrew word that is translated preacher i...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:26; Ecclesiastes 4:1; Ecclesiastes 4:8;...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    THE MAN UNDER THE SUN Ecclesiastes 1:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS In order to introduce this study we can think of no better way than to go to our booklet on Ecclesiastes for a quotation. 1. ECCLESIASTES S...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    All things — Not only the sun, and winds, and rivers, but all other creatures. Labour — They are in continual restlessness and change, never abiding in the same state. Is not satisfied — As there are...

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