Ecclesiastes 5:16 - Exposition

This also is a sore evil . The thought of Ecclesiastes 5:15 is emphatically repeated. In all points as he came ; i . e . naked, helpless. And what profit hath he that laboreth for the wind? The answer is emphatically "nothing." We have had similar questions in Ecclesiastes 1:3 ; Ecclesiastes 2:22 ; Ecclesiastes 3:9 . To labor for the wind is to toil with no result, like the "feeding on wind, pursuing of vanity," which is the key-note of the book. The wind is the type of all that is empty, delusive, unsubstantial. In Proverbs 11:29 we have the phrase, "to inherit the wind." Job calls futile arguments "words of wind" ( Job 16:3 ; Job 15:2 ). Thus the Greek proverb ἀνέμους θρᾶν ἐν δικτύος to try to catch the wind:" and the Latin, "Ventos pascere," and "Ventos colere "(see Erasmus, 'Adag.,' s . v . "Inanis opera"). Septuagint, καὶ τίς ἡ περίσσεια αὐτοῦ ᾖ μοχθεῖ εἰς ἄνεμον ; "And what is his gain for which he labors for the wind?"