Ecclesiastes 1:5

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
sun	הַשֶּׁ֖מֶשׁ ha.She.mesh	H8121	the sun · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
ariseth	וְזָרַ֥ח ve.za.Rach	H2224	properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sun	הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ ha.Sha.mesh	H8121	the sun · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
down	וּבָ֣א u.Va'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
hasteth	שׁוֹאֵ֛ף sho.'Ef	H7602	to inhale eagerly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
place	מְקוֹמ֔וֹ me.ko.Mo	H4725	properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
arose	זוֹרֵ֥חַֽ zo.Re.ach	H2224	properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Psalms 19:4-6 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Psalms 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Habakkuk 3:11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Joshua 10:13-14 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of…
Psalms 89:36-37 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psalms 104:19-23 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
Jeremiah 33:20 Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in the…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:4-8

To prove the vanity of all things under the sun, and their insufficiency to make us happy, Solomon here shows, 1. That the time of our enjoyment of these things is very short, and only while we accomplish as a hireling his day. We continue in the world but for one generation, which is continually passing away to make room for another, and we are passing with it. Our worldly possessions we very lately had from others, and must very shortly leave to others, and therefore to us they are vanity; they can be no more substantial than that life which is the substratum of them, and that is but a vapour, which appears for a little while and then vanishes away. While the stream of mankind is continual…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 1:5

(Psa 19:5-6). "Panting" as the Hebrew for "hasteth"; metaphor, from a runner (Psa 19:5, "a strong man") in a "race." It applies rather to the rising sun, which seems laboriously to mount up to the meridian, than to the setting sun; the accents too favor MAURER, "And (that too, returning) to his place, where panting he riseth."

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:5

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The sun rises in the morning and sets at evening in our hemisphere, according to the appearance of things; and then it makes haste to go round the other hemisphere in the night: it "pants", as the word (t) signifies; the same figure is used by other writers (u); like a man out of breath with running; so this glorious body, which rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, and whose circuit is from one end of the heavens to the other, Psalm 19:5; is in haste to get to the place where he rose in the morning, and there he makes no stop, but pursues his course in the same track again. By this instance is exempl…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 1:5

"And the sun ariseth, the sun goeth down, and it hasteth (back) to its place, there to rise again." It rises and sets again, but its setting is not a coming to rest; for from its place of resting in the west it must rise again in the morning in the east, hastening to fulfil its course. Thus Hitzig rightly, for he takes "there to rise again" as a relative clause; the words may be thus translated, but strictly taken, both participles stand on the same level; שׁואף (panting, hastening) is like בּא in Ecc 1:4, the expression of the present, and זו that of the fut. instans: ibi (rursus) oriturus; the accentuation also treats the two partic. as co-ordinate, for Tiphcha separates more than Tebir; b…

The Church Fathers

The great sun, when compared with the Sun of righteousness, is vanity.
— Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 1:5

By the blessed Solomon then, when in the book of Ecclesiastes, a book attested [to be inspired], and not rejected [from the canon] he says: The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place; arising there he goeth to the south, and wheeling in his circuits, wheels towards the north; the wind goeth and turneth about in its circuits. Behold then the sun running his course in the south, and wheeling round to the north, and be instructed.
— Cosmas Indicopleustes ((quoting Severianus of Gabala, Hexaemeron)), The Christian Topography, Book 10

The sun of righteousness rises in the soul. The beginning of its rise is preparatory. It is a preparatory enlightenment. But when it circles around the whole soul and enlightens it altogether so that nothing is outside the light any more, then the soul is in perfect enlightenment. For often it sets in order to rise again. Sunset and sunrise are in accordance with its progress. And sunset and sunrise are united with respect to its location. The second enlightenment means sunset with respect to the previous enlightenment, but it means sunrise with respect to the enlightenment now beginning.
— Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 13:12

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Astronomy · SI — SI
Covetousness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Sun · Rising and setting of — Rising and setting of

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Ecclesiastes 1:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:4-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 1:5

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:5

Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 1:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Ecclesiastes 1:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:4-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 1:5

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:5

Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 1:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Ecclesiastes 1:4

Rashi on Ecclesiastes 1:5