Ecclesiastes 1:3

Futility Illustrated from Nature

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

which they expend on earth?

Ecclesiastes 2:20

2:20 So I began to despair about all the fruit of my labor

for which I worked so hard 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 2:19

2:19 Who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool?

Yet he will be master over all the fruit of my labor

for which I worked so wisely on earth!

This also is futile!

Ecclesiastes 2:21

2:21 For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill;

however, he must hand over the fruit of his labor as an inheritance

to someone else who did not work for it.

This also is futile, and an awful injustice!

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?