Ecclesiastes 1:3

Futility Illustrated from Nature

1:3 What benefit do people get from all the effort

which they expend on earth?

Ecclesiastes 2:11

2:11 Yet when I reflected on everything I had accomplished

and on all the effort that I had expended to accomplish it,

I concluded: “All these achievements and possessions are ultimately profitless –

like chasing the wind!

There is nothing gained from them on earth.”

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23

Painful Days and Restless Nights

2:22 What does a man acquire from all his labor

and from the anxiety that accompanies his toil on earth?

2:23 For all day long his work produces pain and frustration,

and even at night his mind cannot relax!

This also is futile!

Ecclesiastes 5:16

5:16 This is another misfortune:

Just as he came, so will he go.

What did he gain from toiling for the wind?

Proverbs 14:23

14:23 In all hard work there is profit,

but merely talking about it only brings poverty.

Matthew 16:26

16:26 For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life?