2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
2 Vanity
2 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That's what the Quester says.] There's nothing to anything - it's all smoke.
2 "Vanity
2 "Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "completely meaningless!"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:2
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:1-3
(Read Ecclesiastes 1:1-3)
Much is to be learned by comparing one part of Scripture with another. We here behold Solomon returning from the broken and empty cisterns of the world, to the Fountain of living water; recording his own folly and shame, the bitterness of his disappointment, and the lessons he had learned. Those that have taken warning to turn and live, should warn others not to go on and die. He does not merely say all things are vain, but that they are vanity. VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL IS VANITY. This is the text of the preacher's sermon, of which in this book he never loses sight. If this world, in its present state, were all, it would not be worth living for; and the wealth and pleasure of this world, if we had ever so much, are not enough to make us happy. What profit has a man of all his labour? All he gets by it will not supply the wants of the soul, nor satisfy its desires; will not atone for the sins of the soul, nor hinder the loss of it: what profit will the wealth of the world be to the soul in death, in judgment, or in the everlasting state?