Ecclesiastes 5:16
And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
Ecclesiastes belongs to a book that presents human life as vain and human pursuits as useless apart from God. The Hebrew term roo-agh here carries the sense of wind, so that to labor for the wind is to labor for what is empty or vain. It is a grievous evil that a person leaves life in all respects as empty-handed as when he came. No profit remains to one who has spent labor pursuing what cannot satisfy.