Parallel Verses
A Conservative Version
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
New American Standard Bible
What the eyes
King James Version
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
Holman Bible
Better what the eyes see than wandering desire.
International Standard Version
It is better to focus on what you can see than to meander after your self-interest; this also is pointless and a chasing after wind.
American Standard Version
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Amplified
What the eyes see [enjoying what is available] is better than [craving] what the soul desires. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.
Bible in Basic English
What the eyes see is better than the wandering of desire. This is to no purpose and a desire for wind.
Darby Translation
Better is the seeing of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this also is vanity and pursuit of the wind.
Julia Smith Translation
Good the sight of the eyes above the going of the soul. Also this is vanity and striving of spirit
King James 2000
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and grasping after the wind.
Lexham Expanded Bible
{Better to be content with what your eyes see than for your soul to constantly crave more}. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!
Modern King James verseion
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
Modern Spelling Tyndale-Coverdale
The sight of the eyes is better, then that the soul should so depart away. Howbeit, this is also a vain thing and a disquietness of mind.
NET Bible
It is better to be content with what the eyes can see than for one's heart always to crave more. This continual longing is futile -- like chasing the wind.
New Heart English Bible
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
The Emphasized Bible
Better what the eyes behold, than the wandering of desire, - even this, was vanity, and a feeding on wind.
Webster
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
World English Bible
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Youngs Literal Translation
Better is the sight of the eyes than the going of the soul. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Interlinear
Towb
`ayin
References
Hastings
Word Count of 20 Translations in Ecclesiastes 6:9
Verse Info
Context Readings
One Must Learn To Be Content With What One Has
8 For what advantage has the wise man more than the fool? What has the poor man, who knows how to walk before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. 10 Whatever has been, the name of it was given long ago, and it is know what man is. Neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.
Names
Cross References
Ecclesiastes 1:14
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and, behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Job 31:7
if my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any spot has clung to my hands,
Proverbs 30:15-16
The leach has two daughters, [crying], Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, [yea], four that do not say, Enough:
Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 2:11
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:22-24
For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart in which he labors under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
I know that there is nothing better for them, than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live.
Ecclesiastes 5:18
Behold, that which I have seen to be good and to be fitting is [for a man] to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor in which he labors under the sun all the days of his life which God has given him, for this is his p
Ecclesiastes 6:2
A man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
Ecclesiastes 11:9
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgmen
Jeremiah 2:20
For from old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds. And thou said, I will not serve, for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou bowed thyself, playing the harlot.