New King James Version
Ecclesiastes 3:9
9What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?
Ecclesiastes 3:9 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
- New International Version (NIV)What do workers gain from their toil?
- English Standard Version (ESV)What gain has the worker from his toil?
- New Living Translation (NLT)What do people really get for all their hard work?
Context of Ecclesiastes 3:9
7A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; 8A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace. What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
Read all of Ecclesiastes 3Ecclesiastes 3:9 word by word
מַה־יִּתְרוֹן֙ הָֽעוֹשֶׂ֔ה בַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר ה֥וּא עָמֵֽל׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 3:9
- Ecclesiastes 1:3What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun?
- Ecclesiastes 2:11Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 5:16And this also is a severe evil— Just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?
- Proverbs 14:23In all labor there is profit, But idle chatter leads only to poverty.
- Matthew 16:26For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 3:9
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 9What profit hath he - What real good, what solid pleasure, is derived from all the labors of man? Necessity drives him to the principal part of his cares and toils; he labors that he may eat and drink; and he eats and drinks that he may be preserved alive, and kept from sickness and pain. Love of money, the basest of all passions, and restless ambition, drive men to many labors and expedients, which perplex and often destroy them. He, then, who lives…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 9gain from his toil?: See Ecclesiastes 3:12–13.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 99. But these earthly pursuits, while lawful in their season, are "unprofitable" when made by man, what God never intended them to be, the chief good. Solomon had tried to create an artificial forced joy, at times when he ought rather to have been serious; the result, therefore, of his labor to be happy, out of God's order, was disappointment. "A time to plant" (Ec 3:2) refers to his planting (Ec 2:5); "laugh" (Ec 3:4), to Ec 2:1, 2; "his mirth,"…Read the comment
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries