Passage
Ecclesiastes 1.1
Book: Ecclesiastes · NASB95
Immediate context (±2 verses)
ASV (ASV)
"1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem."
"2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity. 3. What profit hath man of all his labor wherein he laboreth under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, ASV)
WEB (WEB)
"1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:"
"2. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” 3. What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, WEB)
KJV (KJV)
"1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem."
"2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, KJV)
YLT (YLT)
"1. Words of a preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:"
"2. Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, Vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity. 3. What advantage [is] to man by all his labour that he laboureth at under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, YLT)
Setting
- Speaker: TBD
- Audience: TBD
- Location: TBD
- Time period: TBD
Theological reading
Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.
Key words
Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD
Quoted in
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
Why these four translations
ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.
The four:
- ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
- WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
- KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
- YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.
See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.