Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 may be called an introduction to the book; it also presents the writer's conclusions. He has surveyed life from many angles and decided that all human effort is fruitless and unavailing, or as he puts it, vanity. This is his key-word (the Hebrew means vapour, breath, and so nothingness): it occurs forty times. Vanity of vanities is the Heb. way of saying utmost vanity. Man toils under the sun, i.e. upon the earth, but reaps no gain; like players on a stage the ever-changing generations come and go, while the earth, man's scene of toil, abides. As with man so with nature; sun, winds (north and south, cf. Ca. Ecclesiastes 4:16), streams, all pursue a dreary round of endless repetition and accomplish nothing, e.g. the sea is never filled. The whole creation groans and travails but makes no ascent, and its futile activities so react on man that his faculties, e.g. seeing and hearing, enter on equally profitless and unsatisfying orbits. Everything moves in monotonous and steady cycles, there is no novelty in life (cf. Ecclesiastes 3:15), but men do not perceive the repetition because each generation is ignorant of the experiences of preceding generationsthere is no remembrance (cf. Ecclesiastes 9:5).
Ecclesiastes 1:5. hasteth: lit. panteth. The idea is that of the chariot of the sun drawn by panting steeds. 2 Kings 23:11 shows that the Hebrews as well as Greeks and Romans had this notion.