Ecclesiastes 6:7

All of man’s labor is for nothing more than ¹  to fill his stomach ²  – yet his appetite ³  is never satisfied!

All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.

All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied.

All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough.

We work to feed our appetites; Meanwhile our souls go hungry.

All the work of man is for his mouth, and still he has a desire for food.

All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied.

All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied.

All of man’s labor is for nothing more than ¹  to fill his stomach ²  – yet his appetite ³  is never satisfied!

¹ tn The phrase “for nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “All man’s work is for his mouth.” The term “mouth” functions as a synecdoche of part (i.e., mouth) for the whole (i.e., person), substituting the organ of consumption for the person’s action of consumption (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 641-43), as suggested by the parallelism with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “his appetite”).

³ tn The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “desire; appetite”) is used as a metonymy of association, that is, the soul is associated with man’s desires and appetites (BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 5.c; 6.a).