Ecclesiastes 2:17-19

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind. I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Read all of Ecclesiastes 2

7 songs meet this passage

  • Crazy · Gnarls Barkley

    resonates with Ecclesiastes 2:17-19

    Admiring those who gave everything to a pursuit, even at ruinous cost, mirrors the Preacher's own weariness with striving.

  • “All those fairy tales are full of s**t”

    Payphone (feat. Wiz Khalifa) · Maroon 5

    resonates with Ecclesiastes 2:17

    The disillusioned 'nothing is real' despair mirrors the Preacher's weariness, though without his eventual turn toward meaning under God.

  • Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now · The Smiths

    resonates with Ecclesiastes 2:17

    The whole song's weary disgust with life and labor mirrors the Preacher's own confession of hating life, though Ecclesiastes eventually points past itself and this song stays put.

  • Wildside · Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

    resonates with Ecclesiastes 2:17

    The song's cumulative despair over wasted lives and senseless deaths resonates with the Preacher's exhausted verdict that life under these conditions feels meaningless.

  • “Life is a bitch and then you die”

    Fantastic Voyage (Re-Recorded) · Coolio

    strains against Ecclesiastes 2:17

    Where the Preacher's despair over life's futility still turns toward seeking meaning under God, this line settles into resignation without that reach.

  • Barely Breathing · Duncan Sheik

    resonates with Ecclesiastes 2:17

    The weary, circular despair of trying to make sense of something senseless mirrors the Preacher's exhaustion with life's confusions.

  • “I don't wanna work again I don't wanna try again”

    The Reaper's Wrath · Azizi Gibson

    resonates with Ecclesiastes 2:17-18

    This weary disillusionment with labor and people mirrors the Preacher's exhausted despair, though without his eventual turn toward meaning.

Elsewhere in Ecclesiastes 2