Word

רְעוּת

rᵉʻûwth · H7469 · Hebrew · 7 occurrences

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Meanings

to pursue the wind

Literally: striving after wind; hence: action by which humans are actively looking to be engaged in activities that serve no purpose

Examples
Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is futility and striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:11 So I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold, all was futility and striving after wind, and there was no benefit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:17 So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was unhappy to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind.

How it’s used In 2 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

Whose, or of whatGenitive or possessive

7 occurrences in 1 groups

רוּחַspirit, wind 7

What is said to be itIt is the predicate

6 occurrences in 2 groups

זֶהthis 3
כֹּלall, every, whole 3

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Semantic domains 2 entries

Fail002003003013: Ecclesiastes 1:14, 2:11, 2:17, and 2:26 all repeatedly describe human labor as "futility and striving after wind," directly attesting the sense of fruitless, failed effort.
Friends001001003003: Ecclesiastes 4:4 attributes toil to "rivalry between a person and his neighbor," attesting this word's association with a fellow person or neighbor, shared with the sibling entry "another, mate" (רְעוּת (rᵉʻûwth, H7468)).

Word family 3 words

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

רְעוּתrᵉʻûwth · H7469רְעוּת rᵉʻûwth · H7470 · pleasure, will · 2×

Also from the root רְעוּת

רַעְיוֹן raʻyôwn · H7475 · thought, thinking, to pursue the wind · 3×

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H7469. reuth II. רְעוּת noun feminine longing, striving; — construct, וּר ׳הֶבֶל רוּחַ…

H7469. reuth
II. רְעוּת noun feminine longing, striving; — construct, וּר ׳הֶבֶל רוּחַ Ecc 1:14; Ecc 2:11, Ecc 2:17, Ecc 2:26; Ecc 4:4; Ecc 6:9; וּר ׳עָמָל רוּחַ Ecc 4:6.

Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0