(ב) הֲבֵ֤ל הֲבָלִים֙ אָמַ֣ר קֹהֶ֔לֶת הֲבֵ֥ל הֲבָלִ֖ים הַכֹּ֥ל הָֽבֶל׃
2. Merest breath, said Kohelet, merest breath. All is mere breath.
3 What gain is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun.
(13) Shall not save you when you cry out. They shall all be borne off by the wind, Snatched away by a breeze. But those who trust in Me shall inherit the land And possess My sacred mount.
(א) וְהָ֣אָדָ֔ם יָדַ֖ע אֶת־חַוָּ֣ה אִשְׁתּ֑וֹ וַתַּ֙הַר֙ וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־קַ֔יִן וַתֹּ֕אמֶר קָנִ֥יתִי אִ֖ישׁ אֶת־יְהוָֽה׃ (ב) וַתֹּ֣סֶף לָלֶ֔דֶת אֶת־אָחִ֖יו אֶת־הָ֑בֶל וַֽיְהִי־הֶ֙בֶל֙ רֹ֣עֵה צֹ֔אן וְקַ֕יִן הָיָ֖ה עֹבֵ֥ד אֲדָמָֽה׃
(1) Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gained a male child with the help of the LORD.” (2) She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil.
Hevel
The seventeenth-century translators obviously had the Latin version in mind, with “vanity” suggesting a lack of value, not self-admiration. This choice has actually been preserved, a little surprisingly, in one recent scholarly translation, C. L. Seow’s Anchor Bible Ecclesiastes. At least a couple of other modern translations have opted for “futility,” and Michael V. Fox, in his admirable analysis accompanied by a translation of the text, insists on “absurdity.” The problem is that all of these English equivalents are more or less right, and abstractions being what they are, each one has the effect of excluding the others and thus limiting the scope of the Hebrew metaphor. The Hebrew hevel probably indicates the flimsy vapor that is exhaled in breathing, invisible except on a cold winter day and in any case immediately dissipating in the air. It is the opposite of , “life-breath,” which is the animating force in a living creature, because it is the waste product of breathing.
The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary (Kindle Locations 7734-7741). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
English
2. Merest breath, said Kohelet, merest breath. All is mere breath.
3 What gain is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun.
The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary (Kindle Locations 7845-7850). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
And I turned about in all my deeds that my hands had done and in the toil that I had toiled to do, and, look, all was mere breath and herding the wind, and there was no gain under the sun.
the man who seems good before Him He has given wisdom and knowledge and merriment, but to the offender He has given the business of amassing and taking in to give to him who seems good before God. This, too, is mere breath and herding the wind.
The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary (Kindle Locations 7976-7979). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
There is one without a second, neither son nor brother he has. And there is no end to his toil, nor is his eye sated with wealth: “And for whom do I toil and deprive myself of good things?” This, too, is mere breath and an evil business.
He who loves money will not be sated with money, and he who 9 loves wealth will have no crop. This, too, is mere breath.
Should man live many years, let him rejoice in all of them, and let him recall the days of darkness, for they will be many. Whatever comes is mere breath.
And dust returns to the earth as it was, and the life-breath returns to God Who gave it. Merest breath, said Qohelet. All is mere breath.
Death: The Final Stage of Growth, Elizabeth Kübler Ross, 164.