Eccl 1:1-5
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
The Old Testament > Ecclesiastes > Chapter 1
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Questions
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Lexical notes
- The meaning of "vanity," a key word in Ecclesiastes, has changed in its primary meaning since the King James Version was translated. The 1828 Webster's Dictionary gives its meaning as "emptiness; want of substance to satisfy desire; uncertainty; inanity," and that is what is meant here in verse 2. (This meaning of the root word survives today in the phrase "in vain.")
The Hebrew word here is hebel. The literal and probably original meaning of the word was "breath" or "wind." The image it conveys it conveys is that of a person's breath on a cold day — certainly visible, but also transitory and with little lasting substance. It eventually came to be used in a figurative manner. Modern translators have variously interpreted hebel in this verse as "foolishness," "fleetingness," "emptiness," "meaninglessness," "vapor," "mist," "futility" and "pointlessness."
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Exegesis
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Related links
- For a poetic attempt to think the reference to the four elements in verses 4-7, see User: Joe Spencer/hineni shalachni.
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