Ecclesiastes 1:3

3. What profit hath a man The matter to be investigated is now plainly stated. The question is in Hebrew rhetoric a favourite substitute for the negative “a man hath no profit” in the “toil which he toileth;” (emphatic, like “with desire have I desired.”)

Under the sun Found in this book only of the Bible, and here some twenty-five times; is a lively equivalent to “on the earth.”