Ecclesiastes 12:8

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; all is vanity.

American King James Version (AKJV)

Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; all is vanity.

American Standard Version (ASV)

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

All things are to no purpose, says the Preacher, all is to no purpose.

Webster's Revision

Vanity of vanities saith the preacher; all is vanity.

World English Bible

"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher. "All is vanity!"

English Revised Version (ERV)

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.

Clarke's Ecclesiastes 12:8 Bible Commentary

This affecting and minute description of old age and death is concluded by the author with the same exclamation by which he began this book: O vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth, all is vanity. Now that man, the masterpiece of God's creation, the delegated sovereign of this lower world, is turned to dust, what is there stable or worthy of contemplation besides? All - All is Vanity!

Barnes's Ecclesiastes 12:8 Bible Commentary

This passage is properly regarded as the Epilogue of the whole book; a kind of apology for the obscurity of many of its sayings. The passage serves therefore to make the book more intelligible and more acceptable.

Here, as in the beginning of the book Ecclesiastes 1:1-2, the Preacher speaks of himself Ecclesiastes 12:8-10 in the third person. He first repeats Ecclesiastes 12:8 the mournful, perplexing theme with which his musings began Ecclesiastes 1:2; and then states the encouraging practical conclusion Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 to which they have led him. It has been pointed out that the Epilogue assumes the identity of the Preacher with the writer of the Book of Proverbs.

Wesley's Ecclesiastes 12:8 Bible Commentary

12:8 Vanity - This sentence, wherewith he began this book, he here repeats in the end of it, as that which he had proved in all the foregoing discourse, and that which naturally followed from both the branches of the assertion laid down, ver. 7 .