What Does Ecclesiastes 2:22 Mean in the King James?
For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Hebrew repeats the same root for the toil a person bears and the act of toiling, asking what effort yields when it circles back as its own burden.
THE MEANING
Your work can occupy your hands and thoughts while the question of its lasting yield remains open. The verse holds the strain between what you labor for and what that labor gives back beneath the sun.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that enough effort necessarily produces lasting gain or settles the heart.
THE ROOT
עֲמָלוֹ
ʿămālô
GROWS FROM
עמל
ʿ-m-l
Toil or labor under strain, with a sense of trouble or hardship.
“labour / laboured” in this verse is ʿămālô. English shifts from the noun “labour” to the verb “laboured,” but Hebrew repeats עמל (ʿ-m-l), tying the toil a person bears to the act of toiling. The verse’s question turns on that loop: what does labor yield when labor itself becomes the burden?
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmāl: Toil, labor, trouble
עָמָל
This noun names the work as wearisome toil, not just an amount of effort.
ʿāmēl: Toiling, laboring
עָמֵל
The closing verb repeats the root as an ongoing activity, binding what the person bears to what the person keeps doing.
THE PATTERN
Human effort and anxious striving cannot guarantee the lasting gain they seek.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?THE THREAD
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?The Hebrew repeats עמל (ʿ-m-l), toil, in both verses. Ecclesiastes 1:3 asks what toil yields; 2:22 sharpens the question by repeating that same root for both the burden of labor and the act of laboring.
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