means, everything in life is to the greatest degree vanity. The word “vanity” (hebhel) is used thirty-nine times in the book. The word means primarily “a breath” or “vapor” such as one might see when exhaled breath condenses on a cold day. The word is used poetically of all that is fleeting, perishable, transitory, frail and unsatisfying.1 In this context the word suggests the futility of human effort. The rest of the book is a commentary on this verse. In asserting that “all is vanity” the writer