Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. That's an unusually bleak sentence to find in a book most people assume is supposed to be reassuring. The Preacher doesn't ease into this — he opens the whole book with it, as flatly as possible, before spending the next several chapters testing pleasure, work, wisdom, and wealth against that verdict, one by one.
"Vanity" here is closer to vapor or breath — something you can't hold onto, that slips through your hands no matter how tightly you grip. It's not necessarily saying life is worthless. It's saying that nothing under the sun, on its own, can bear the full weight of meaning we keep trying to hang on it.
If you've ever chased an achievement or a relationship expecting it to finally settle something, and found it didn't, this verse isn't cynicism for its own sake. It's an honest starting point — one this same book doesn't leave you stranded in.
If chasing the next achievement has never quite settled what you hoped it would, this book's honesty about that might be worth reading further into.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.