Ecclesiastes 6:11

11 The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?

Ecclesiastes 6:11 in Other Translations

11 Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?

11 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?

11 The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they?

11 The more words that are spoken, the more smoke there is in the air. And who is any better off?

11 For when there are many words, they increase futility. What is the advantage for man?

Ecclesiastes 6:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 6:11

Seeing there be many things that increase vanity
As appears by all that has been said in this and the preceding chapters; such as wisdom and knowledge, wealth and riches, pleasure, power, and authority. Man is a poor vain creature himself, all he is and has is vanity; and these serve but to increase it, and make him vainer and vainer still; what [is] man the better?
for these things? not at all, rather the worse, being more vain; there is no profit by them, no excellency arises to him from them, no happiness in them, nothing that will be of any service to him, especially with respect to a future state, or when he comes to die. It may be rendered, as it is in the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, "seeing there are many words that multiply vanity"; as all such words do that are used with God by way of murmur and complaint concerning a man's lot and condition in this world, and as expostulating and contending with him about it; these increase sin, and by them men contract more guilt, and therefore are not the better for such litigations, but the worse; and so the words stand in connection with ( Ecclesiastes 6:10 ) : but the former sense seems best, this being the conclusion of the wise man's discourse concerning vanity. So the Targum and Jarchi understand it of things, and not words.

Ecclesiastes 6:11 In-Context

9 Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

10 Whatever exists has already been named, and what humanity is has been known; no one can contend with someone who is stronger.

11 The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?

12 For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?