Ecclesiastes 1:1–2
"The words of Qoheleth… havel havalim"
The heading names the speaker Qoheleth, "son of David, king in Jerusalem," and the motto declares "all is hevel." The Hebrew has five hevel-words in one verse. Greek and Latin render Qoheleth as Ecclesiastes and hevel as mataiotes / vanitas, the source of English "vanity." The library's Greek adds "of Israel" to the king's title.
Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning
The family tree
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✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Often dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)
The book as first written
No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Ecclesiastes are two Qumran fragments, 4Q109 (4QQoh-a, mid-2nd century BC, reported) and 4Q110 (4QQoh-b, reported).
Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592
Latin Vulgate (Clementine)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Verba Ecclesiastæ, filii David, regis Jerusalem. Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes; vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas.
Latin numbering: Ecclesiastes 1:1–2. Jerome translated Ecclesiastes from Hebrew (c. AD 398), after writing a commentary on it (c. 388); the Vulgate is an indirect witness to a Hebrew text, with Jerome's interpretation.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
דִּבְרֵי֙ קֹהֶ֣לֶת בֶּן־דָּוִ֔ד מֶ֖לֶךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃ הֲבֵ֤ל הֲבָלִים֙ אָמַ֣ר קֹהֶ֔לֶת הֲבֵ֥ל הֲבָלִ֖ים הַכֹּ֥ל הָֽבֶל׃
The words of Qoheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem. Breath of breaths, said Qoheleth, breath of breaths: all is breath
Hebrew numbering: Ecclesiastes 1:1–2.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872
Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Paroles de l’Ecclésiaste, fils de David, roi d’Israël en Jérusalem. Vanité des vanités, dit l’Ecclésiaste, vanité des vanités, tout est vanité.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Ecclesiastes 1:1–2. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). A C check needs the Göttingen edition of Greek Ecclesiastes (P. J. Gentry, 2019). Note "roi d'Israël en Jérusalem" in 1:1.
What changed, and why
Qoheleth is a feminine participle form from qahal, "assembly," used as a title (compare the office names sofereth and pokhereth in Ezra 2:55, 57). It may mean "gatherer" (of people, or of sayings, 12:9) or "one who speaks in the assembly." The Greek Ekklesiastes ("one of the ekklesia") and the Latin Ecclesiastes keep the assembly idea; Luther's Prediger and the KJV's "Preacher" made it a preacher; many modern versions use "Teacher."
Havel havalim is a Hebrew superlative (like "song of songs"): "utter breath," "the most fleeting of fleeting things." Greek mataiotes mataioteton and Latin vanitas vanitatum mean "emptiness of emptinesses"; English "vanity" comes from the Latin. The image of breath is lost in all three. This is a translation difference, not a textual one: all witnesses read the same Hebrew.
Paul uses the Greek word mataiotes in Romans 8:20 ("the creature was made subject to vanity"). Many interpreters hear Ecclesiastes there; it is a shared word, not a quotation.
What the evidence shows
- All library witnesses agree on the Hebrew wording of 1:1–2, apart from the Greek's "of Israel" in 1:1.
- Qoheleth is a personal name. Most take it as a title or role.
- "Vanity" means worthless in Ecclesiastes. Hevel is literally breath; senses vary by context.
Sources
Related lessons
- Ecclesiastes 1: Nothing New Under the Sun →A third-person heading introduces "the words of Qoheleth, the son of David, king in Jerusalem" (1:1). The motto follows: "havel havalim… all is hevel" (1:2), breath of breaths, vapor of vapors, "vanity of vanities" in older English. Then the question that drives the book: "What profit (yitron) hath a man of all his labour (amal) which he taketh under the sun?" (1:3). A poem shows generations passing while sun, wind and rivers go round and round (vv. 4–11). The speaker then introduces himself as a king who set out to examine everything by wisdom and found it "a pursuit of wind" (vv. 12–18).
- Investigation: Who Was Qoheleth? →The book calls its speaker Qoheleth, "son of David, king in Jerusalem," and never names Solomon. Jewish and Christian tradition long read it as Solomon's. Most modern scholars date its Hebrew to the Persian or Hellenistic period (roughly 5th–3rd centuries BC) and read the royal voice as a literary persona. This investigation separates the categories that are often blurred: the title, the persona, the narrator who frames him, the historical author, and the date of the earliest copies.
- Investigation: What Does Hevel Actually Mean? →Hevel is literally "breath" or "vapor." It occurs 38 times in Ecclesiastes (30 verses), more than in the rest of the Hebrew Bible combined. English Bibles have rendered it "vanity," "meaningless," "futile," "absurd," "fleeting" and "enigma." This investigation groups every occurrence by what it is applied to and shows why no single English word fits them all.