“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, NKJV). This is the refrain the entire book circles back to, an unsettling opening line for a book of wisdom.
Vanity here means fleeting, insubstantial, like vapor that can’t be grasped. The Preacher isn’t being cynical for its own sake, he’s being honest about how little of life, examined purely under the sun, actually holds up.
This isn’t where Ecclesiastes ends, but it’s an honest starting point. Before the book offers its wisdom, it names the emptiness plainly, without minimizing it.
What in your own life have you been treating as solid and lasting that this verse suggests might actually be more like vapor than you’d like to admit?