Ecclesiastes Chapter One, Profit & Loss

Ecclesiastes 1:3 “What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?

Take note that “vanity,” or, “all is vanity,” is intrinsically linked to the next phrase revealed by the preacher in verse 3, “under the sun.” If I may be so bold as to paraphrase the saying, I would render it akin to, “from man’s perspective, “ or, “if man is the measure of all things.” Neither flow nearly as well, but we may easily concede the point the preacher is making with his phrase.

The verse begins with a rhetorical question posed by the preacher: does labor—read in: does any effort toward anything—profit a man? My mother used to ask this series of questions to people about the purpose of life. Indulge me, because this may take a moment. It would routinely begin this way:

Q: What is your goal in life?

A: To do well in school, go to college, get a good job.

Q: What then?

A: Work my way up the ladder, become financially secure, and get married.

Q: What then?

A: Have children, provide for their comfort, eventually they move out and I retire.

Q: What then?

A: Enjoy my golden years with my spouse, doing what I like at my leisure.

Q: What then?

Undoubtedly you see where this is going by this point. The final answer to “what then?” always, and one must stress ALWAYS concludes with, “I die.” If, death is the inevitable end to man’s laborious toil, then what does it profit us? Again it must be remembered that the preacher is considering the vanity or pointlessness of life under the sun. Furthermore, he is exploring a multiplicity of avenues that do not simply involve careers. He explores wisdom, frivolity, mirth, excess, and more. If there was a path for man to walk where purpose might be discovered, he was determined to find it.

This question, then, is not merely rhetorical. He isn’t asking it to the air, or debating its legitimacy to a philosophy class. It is a heartfelt cry from an aging man whose great wisdom and works, his monuments that he is leaving upon his passing, do not comfort him as death’s inescapable embrace draws near. All men, all humanity, must die. “It is appointed for men to die once,” Hebrews 9:27. So while the preacher asks this in a general or universal sense, compassing all humanity and the myriad (but identically ending) paths we choose to create purpose in the absence of it, it is deeply personal. Ecclesiastes is a wisdom book left behind by an elderly man on the cusp of his twilight years, embittered that life under the sun holds no objective purpose. He is reflecting on forty years of rulership over the greatest kingdom on earth at that time and realizing there is a certain futility to human effort when it is expended in the vacuum of working for the sake of work. Whatever man pursues, ill or good, may keep us quite busy (and this subject will be addressed in due time) but business does not equate into objective meaning. Furthermore, the preacher is searching for, “profit.”

The Hebrew word for “profit,” in this verse is, “yithrown,” a derivative of, “yathar,” which can mean, “preeminence or gain, to remain or be left, to cause to abound, to preserve.” It is employed in this verse, 2:11, 3:9, 5:9, 16, and a participle of the term is used in 7:11. What preeminence or gain does a man acquire from all the work he performs in this life, under the sun, before death renders further ventures moot? In a sense, the preacher is simply asking that age-old question: does life possess meaning? And if it does, how can one acquire it? His searching is sincere, and as we will learn (God willing) rather comprehensive.