Ecclesiastes 3:9

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 King James Version (NKJV)What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?

Context of Ecclesiastes 3:9

7A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. 8A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. What do people really get for all their hard work? 10I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:9 word by word

מַה־יִּתְרוֹן֙ הָֽעוֹשֶׂ֔ה בַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר ה֥וּא עָמֵֽל׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• What profitיִתְרוֹןyithrôn · advantageH3504
• hath he that workethעָשָׂה‛âώâh · to make: doH6213
• in that whereinבַאֲשֶׁר'ăsher · in whichH834
• he labourethעָמֵל‛âmêl · laboriousH6001

Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 3:9

• Ecclesiastes 1:3What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?
• Ecclesiastes 2:11But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
• Ecclesiastes 5:16And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind.
• Proverbs 14:23Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty!
• Matthew 16:26And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your 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

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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