Ecclesiastes 1:8
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
American King James Version (AKJV)
All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
American Standard Version (ASV)
All things are full of weariness; man cannot utter it : the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
All things are full of weariness; man may not give their story: the eye has never enough of its seeing, or the ear of its hearing.
Webster's Revision
All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
World English Bible
All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
English Revised Version (ERV)
All things are full of weariness; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Definitions for Ecclesiastes 1:8
Clarke's Ecclesiastes 1:8 Bible Commentary
All things are full of labor - It is; impossible to calculate how much anxiety, pain, labor, and fatigue are necessary in order to carry on the common operations of life. But an endless desire of gain, and an endless curiosity to unfitness a variety of results, cause men to, labor on. The eye sees much, but wishes to, see more. The ear hears of many things; but is curious to have the actual knowledge of them. So desire and curiosity carry men, under the Divine providence, through all the labors and pains of life.
Barnes's Ecclesiastes 1:8 Bible Commentary
All things ... utter it - This clause, as here translated, refers to the immensity of labor. Others translate it, "all words are full of labor; they make weary the hearers," or "are feeble or insufficient" to tell the whole; and are referred to the impossibility of adequately describing labor.
Wesley's Ecclesiastes 1:8 Bible Commentary
1:8 All things - Not only the sun, and winds, and rivers, but all other creatures. Labour - They are in continual restlessness and change, never abiding in the same state. Is not satisfied - As there are many things in the world vexatious to men, so even those things which are comfortable, are not satisfactory, but men are constantly desiring some longer continuance or fuller enjoyment of them, or variety in them. The eye and ear are here put for all the senses, because these are most spiritual and refined, most curious and inquisitive, most capable of receiving satisfaction, and exercised with more ease and pleasure than the other senses.