an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
satisfied
תִשְׂבַּ֥עtis.Ba'
H7646
to sate · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
seeing
לִרְא֔וֹתlir.'ot
H7200
to see · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
ear
אֹ֖זֶן'O.zen
H241
broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
filled
תִמָּלֵ֥אti.ma.Le'
H4390
to fill or (intransitively) be full of · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
hearing
מִשְּׁמֹֽעַmi.she.Mo.a'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
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
Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Ecclesiastes 4:8 There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his…
Psalms 63:5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
Proverbs 30:15-16 The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enou…
Ecclesiastes 2:11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexat…
Ecclesiastes 2:26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap…
Ecclesiastes 4:1-4 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had…
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…
MAURER translates, "All words are wearied out," that is, are inadequate, as also, "man cannot express" all the things in the world which undergo this ceaseless, changeless cycle of vicissitudes: "The eye is not satisfied with seeing them," &c. But it is plainly a return to the idea (Ecc 1:3) as to man's "labor," which is only wearisome and profitless; "no new" good can accrue from it (Ecc 1:9); for as the sun, &c., so man's laborious works move in a changeless cycle. The eye and ear are two of the taskmasters for which man toils. But these are never "satisfied" (Ecc 6:7; Pro 27:20). Nor can they be so hereafter, for there will be nothing "new." Not so the chief good, Jesus Christ (Joh 4:13-1…
All things are full of labour,.... Or "are laborious" (g); gotten by labour, and attended with fatigue and weariness; riches are got by labour, and those who load themselves with thick clay, as gold and silver be, weary themselves with it; honour and glory, crowns and kingdoms, are weighty cares, and very fatiguing to those that have them; much study to acquire knowledge is a weariness to the flesh; and as men even weary themselves to commit iniquity, it is no wonder that religious exercises should be a weariness to a natural man, and a carnal professor;
man cannot utter it; or declare all the things that are laborious and fatiguing, nor all the labour they are full of; time would fail, and…
The Church Fathers
All writings, both of secular and of divine wisdom, yield instruction when effort is applied.
Therefore incline to him of whom the psalmist says, "He has not taken his soul in vain." To speak now of the troubles of this life, the person has taken his soul in vain who is constructing the things of the world and building the things of the body. We arise each day to eat and drink; yet no one is filled so that he does not hunger and thirst after a short time. Daily we seek profit, and to greed there is set no limit. "The eye will not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing." He that loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. There is no limit to toil, and there is no profit in abundance. We desire each day to know what is new, and what is knowledge itself but our daily sorrow and abasement?
"All things are full of toil, man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. "It is difficult to know not just about physics but also about ethics. And discourse is not able to explain the natural causes of things, nor to see those things that are hidden, (as the scope of this work demands); nor, once you have begun to learn is it possible to arrive at the greatest understanding by listening alone. For if we now look in the mirror in mystery and in part know and in part prophesy, consequently discourse will not be able to explain what it does not know; nor is the eye able to see where it is blind; nor are the ears filled by what they do not hear. At the same time this must be noted, that all words are wearying and are learnt with great difficulty, contrary to those who idly make prayers that an acquaintance with the Scriptures will come to them.
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
Covetousness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Ear, The · Not satisfied with earthly things — Not satisfied with earthly things
Eye · .Of evil — .Of evil
Eye, The · Not satisfied with seeing — Not satisfied with seeing
Horse · Color of — Color of
Man · SPIRIT — SPIRIT
Myrtle · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Sorrel · A color — A color
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).
"All things are in activity; no man can utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, and the ear is not full with hearing." All translators and interpreters who understand devarim here of words (lxx, Syr., and Targ.) go astray; for if the author meant to say that no words can describe this everlasting sameness with perpetual change, then he would have expressed himself otherwise than by "all words weary" (Ew., Elst., Hengst., and others); he ought at least to have said לריק יג. But also "all things are wearisome" (Knob., Hitz.), or "full of labour" (Zck.), i.e., it is wearisome to relate them all, cannot be the meaning of the sentence; for יגע does not denote that which causes weariness,…
the sea is never full . . . we are never satisfied: This image introduces the unfulfilling nature of life.
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 1:8
All things lead to weariness, etc., the eye is not satisfied [with seeing], nor the ear filled [with hearing]. This refers back to, “What profit [does man have],”32Above, verse 3. if he exchanges the study of Torah to engage in idle talk? They are wearying, and he will not be able to acquire them all, and if he comes to indulge himself visually, his eyes will not be satisfied, and if he seeks aural satisfaction, his ears will not be gratified.33Rashi translates דברים as “words.” Alternatively, דברים means “things,” i.e., “all things lead to weariness.” (Metsudas Dovid)
