Ecclesiastes 1:3-9

What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow. All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing. What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Read all of Ecclesiastes 1

36 songs meet this passage

“The world's still spinning 'round, we don't know why”
Champagne Supernova · Oasis
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:3-9
Like the Preacher's observation that everything cycles without clear purpose, the song voices the same bewildered wondering about life's repetition and meaning.
Mr. Rager · Kid Cudi
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The weary questioning of when meaning or rest will truly arrive echoes the Preacher's exhausted search under the sun.
Kill Yourself V · $uicideboy$
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The questioning of meaning and purpose mirrors the Preacher's own wrestling with the emptiness of life under the sun.
“Legacy is un-debated”
360 · Charli xcx
strains against Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
Qoheleth punctures exactly this kind of confident claim to lasting legacy as ultimately vapor.
Heat Waves · Glass Animals
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The whole song carries a wistful, vapor-like ache, chasing something that keeps slipping away, much like the Preacher's lament.
The Search · NF
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The song's observation that rising sales mean nothing if health declines echoes the Preacher's lament that worldly gain without wellbeing is empty.
Hurt · Johnny Cash
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The same weary realization that all things under the sun slip away and amount to vapor.
“I have climbed highest mountains”
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For · U2
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
Striving after every good thing under the sun and still finding it isn't enough is the Preacher's whole ache, voiced here in a modern key.
“wondering why the world has passed him by”
Meant to Live · Switchfoot
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The weary sense that ordinary life isn't delivering what it promised mirrors the Preacher's own disillusionment with 'life under the sun.'
Stairway to Heaven · Led Zeppelin
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The song's overall haze of searching without resolution, smoke rings, whispering winds, pipers, echoes the Preacher's restless wondering about meaning without a settled answer.
Kashmir · Led Zeppelin
strains against Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
Where the song finds a personal paradise to chase and return to, Ecclesiastes questions whether any earthly place or pursuit can ultimately satisfy.
“It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap”
Born to Run · Bruce Springsteen
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The narrator senses the emptiness of a life spent grinding toward nothing, much like the Preacher's lament over toil 'under the sun.'
“It's only teenage wasteland”
Baba O'Riley · The Who
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
Both name a hollow, drifting emptiness in the search for meaning, though the song never moves past naming it.
“got nothing to lose”
Fast Car · Luke Combs
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
The weary sense of starting from nothing and chasing a better life mirrors Ecclesiastes' honest wrestling with life's hard labor and uncertain gain.
“It says nothing to me about my life”
Panic · The Smiths
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
A lament that surface culture fails to speak to real suffering, akin to Qoheleth's complaint about toil without substance.
“Dreaming of a past that couldn't last”
Bad Blood · Nao
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
The ache over something fleeting and unrecoverable mirrors the Preacher's meditation on the transience of all human things.
“Nothing lasts forever”
Wildest Dreams · Taylor Swift
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
The song's refrain about impermanence echoes the Preacher's meditation on the fleetingness of all things under the sun.
When We Were Young · Adele
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
The song's whole posture, that youth and beauty fade like a passing generation, sits close to the Preacher's meditation on fleeting time.
“Gonna be a big man someday”
We Will Rock You · Queen
strains against Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
The boy's dream of future greatness echoes the restless human ambition Ecclesiastes names as fleeting, a chasing after wind that fades with each generation.
November Rain · Guns N' Roses
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
The song's resignation to the fleeting nature of love mirrors the Preacher's lament over the transience of all things under the sun.
“So many people have come and gone”
More Than a Feeling · Boston
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:4
The song's ache over fading faces and passing years mirrors the Preacher's observation that generations come and go while the world continues.
“Why does the sun go on shining?”
The End of the World · Skeeter Davis
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:5
The Preacher also marvels that the sun rises and sets indifferent to human sorrow; this song voices that same ancient bewilderment.
“Life is a waterfall”
Aerials · System Of A Down
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:7
The image of life as flowing water echoes Ecclesiastes' meditation on the ceaseless cycles of nature and existence.
“Or do you need more?”
Shallow · Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:8
The restlessness of 'the eye is not satisfied with seeing' matches this searching question about whether modern comfort is ever truly enough.
Dancing In the Dark · Bruce Springsteen
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:8
This is the Preacher's own weariness: everything has been seen, done, and still leaves the soul unsatisfied.
The Sound of Silence · Simon & Garfunkel
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:8
The whole song's ache, that words and noise abound yet nothing is truly communicated or satisfied, echoes the Preacher's weary verdict on human toil and speech.
“Yeah, I'm searching, but I don't find”
Trance Dance · ODIE
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:8-9
The restless search for meaning without resolution is the Preacher's own ache, not a sign of unbelief.
“Same old nigga and the same old pain”
Another Day · Kid Cudi
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:9
Captures the same weary sense of repetition and nothing truly changing, a very Ecclesiastes-like admission of futility.
squabble up · Kendrick Lamar
strains against Ecclesiastes 1:9
The claim of reincarnation and self-made identity stands against the biblical pattern of one life, one accountability before God, not cycles of self-renewal.
I Love You, I'm Sorry · Gracie Abrams
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:9
The song's resigned 'that's just the way life goes' mirrors the Preacher's weary sense that patterns repeat without real change.
“If we never learn, we've been here before”
Sign of the Times · Harry Styles
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:9
The weary refrain of repeated cycles and unlearned lessons mirrors the Preacher's lament that nothing truly new happens under the sun.
“I knew that this was doomed from the get-go”
Circles · Post Malone
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:9
Captures the weary sense of repetition without progress that runs through both the song and the Preacher's lament.
“I raise my flag, dye my clothes, it's a revolution”
Radioactive · Imagine Dragons
strains against Ecclesiastes 1:9
The singer imagines a wholly new self and age, but the Preacher reminds us that human reinvention has limits; real renewal comes from outside ourselves.
“I bet that she knows Billy Joel”
deja vu · Olivia Rodrigo
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:9
The song's central ache, that everything repeats and nothing is truly new under this particular sun, mirrors the Preacher's weary observation.
“it's the same old theme since 1916”
Zombie (2025 Remastered) · The Cranberries
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:9
The weary recognition that this violence repeats across generations echoes the Preacher's observation that there is nothing new under the sun.
“Another version of me, I was in it”
End of Beginning · Djo
resonates with Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
The song's sense that past selves and seasons blur together echoes the Preacher's observation that what has been will be again, and former things are soon forgotten.

36 songs meet this passage

Elsewhere in Ecclesiastes 1