Ecclesiastes 1:7

7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

Ecclesiastes 1:7 in Other Translations

7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.

7 All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea never fills up. The rivers keep flowing to the same old place, and then start all over and do it again.

7 All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again.

7 All streams flow into the sea, but the sea is never full. The water goes back to the place where the streams began in order to [start] flowing again.

7 All the streams flow to the sea, yet the sea is never full. The streams are flowing to the place, and they flow there again.

7 Every stream flows into the ocean. But the ocean never gets full. The streams return to the place they came from.

Ecclesiastes 1:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 1:7

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea [is] not full,
&c.] Which flow from fountains or an formed by hasty rains; these make their way to the sea, yet the sea is not filled therewith, and made to abound and overflow the earth, as it might be expected it would. So Seneca says ^F26 we wonder that the accession of rivers is not perceived in the sea; and Lucretius ^F1 observes the same, that it is wondered at that the sea should not increase, when there is such a flow of waters to it from all quarters; besides the wandering showers and flying storms that fall into it, and yet scarce increased a drop; which he accounts for by the exhalations of the sun, by sweeping and drying winds, and by what the clouds take up. Homer ^F2 makes every sea, all the rivers, fountains, and wells, flow, from the main ocean. Hence Pindar ^F3 calls the lake or fountain Camarina the daughter of the ocean But Virgil ^F4 makes the rivers to flow into it, as the wise man here; with which Aristotle ^F5 agrees. So Lactantius ^F6 says, "mare quod ex fluminibus constat", the sea consists of rivers. Both may be true, for, through secret passages under ground, the waters of it are caused to pass back again to their respective places from whence they flowed, as follows; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again;
this also illustrates the succession of men, age after age, and the revolution of things in the world, their unquiet and unsettled state; and the unsatisfying nature of all things; as the sea is never full with what comes into it, so the mind of man is never satisfied with all the riches and honour he gains, or the knowledge of natural things he acquires; and it suggests that even water, as fluctuating a body as it is, yet has the advantage of men; that though it is always flowing and reflowing, yet it returns to its original place, which man does not. And from all these instances it appears that all things are vanity, and man has no profit of all his labour under the sun.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Nat. Quaest. l. 3. c. 4.
F1 De Rerum Natura, l. 6.
F2 Iliad. 21. v. 193
F3 Olymp. Ode 5. v. 4.
F4 "Omnia sub magna" Georgic. l. 4. v. 366, &c.
F5 Meterolog. l. 1. c. 13.
F6 De Orig. Error. l. 2. c. 6.

Ecclesiastes 1:7 In-Context

5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Cross References

• 1. Job 36:28