Hebrew word · H6045

עִנְיָן

'inyan

task

Occupation, task, business, concern. It comes from a root meaning to be busy with or troubled by something. Every biblical use is in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:23, 26; 3:10; 4:8; 5:3, 14; 8:16). The writer often calls it an "unhappy business" ("inyan ra'") that God has given people to keep them busy.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

occupation, task, job

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ecclesiastes 5:3

Range of meaning

Occupation, task, business, concern. It comes from a root meaning to be busy with or troubled by something. Every biblical use is in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:23, 26; 3:10; 4:8; 5:3, 14; 8:16). The writer often calls it an "unhappy business" ("inyan ra'") that God has given people to keep them busy.

Against the English

KJV/ESV have "business", BSB/WEB "cares", NIV "many cares", NASB "effort", and NLT turns it into "activity". No single English word covers both the busy work and the worry that comes with it. "Business" loses the worry, and "cares" loses the work.

How it drifted

In KJV English (1611), "business" meant being busy or occupied. Today readers tend to hear commerce or a company.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word belongs to late Biblical Hebrew. It is common in the later Hebrew of the Mishnah and in Aramaic, where it means "matter, affair". That is one of the signs that Ecclesiastes is written in a late form of Hebrew.

From the study of Ecclesiastes 1:13

Range of meaning

Occupation, business, affair, task; something that keeps one busy; a preoccupation. A late Hebrew word with Aramaic connections, common later in rabbinic Hebrew for 'matter, subject'.

Against the English

KJV/YLT 'travail' adds a sense of painful toil; BSB 'task', WEB 'burden' and NIV 'burden' lean toward heaviness. ESV's 'business' is closest to the plain sense: an occupation that absorbs you. The negative tone comes mainly from the adjective raʿ that follows.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Bible it occurs only in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:23, 26; 3:10; 4:8; 5:3 [Eng 5:3], 5:14 [Eng 5:14]; 8:16). 3:10 nearly repeats this verse: 'I have seen the ʿinyan that God has given to the sons of men to be busied with.' The LXX renders it perispasmos, 'distraction, being pulled in different directions'. The Vulgate has occupatio.

From the study of Ecclesiastes 2:26

Range of meaning

Occupation, business, affair, preoccupation. From 'anah, 'to be busy with' (and perhaps a related root, 'to be afflicted'). Found only in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:23, 26; 3:10; 4:8; 5:3, 14 [Eng 5:2, 13]; 8:16), usually in a tired or negative tone.

Against the English

KJV/YLT/WEB 'travail' (hard labor, toil, even the pain of childbirth). BSB/NASB 'task'. ESV 'business'.

How it drifted

'Task' sounds neutral, like a job assignment. The Hebrew carries the sense of a draining preoccupation, as in 1:13: 'an unhappy business God has given'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint regularly uses perispasmos, 'distraction, being pulled about', which catches the restless tone. The word is common in later rabbinic Hebrew for 'matter, affair'.

Where it appears

Ecclesiastes · 8

  1. Ecclesiastes 1:13 עִנְיַ֣ן [is] a task of

    And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

    Here: A late word found only in Ecclesiastes in the Bible. It means an occupation, a matter that keeps you busy, something that takes up your time and attention.

  2. Ecclesiastes 2:23 עִנְיָנ֔וֹ task his

    Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

    Here: "His business" or "his preoccupation": the matter that keeps him busy and absorbs his attention. The word occurs only in Ecclesiastes.

  3. Ecclesiastes 2:26 עִנְיָ֜ן a task

    To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

    Here: A word found only in Ecclesiastes for a busy, absorbing, often wearying preoccupation. It points back to 1:13, the 'unhappy business' God gave humans, and to 2:23, where a toiler's days are pain and his business is grief.

  4. Ecclesiastes 3:10 הָֽעִנְיָ֗ן the task

    I have seen the burden that God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them.

  5. Ecclesiastes 4:8 וְעִנְיַ֥ן and [is] a task of

    There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.

    Here: An occupation that absorbs a person: a task, a preoccupation. It is a late Hebrew word typical of Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:23, 26).

  6. Ecclesiastes 5:3 עִנְיָ֑ן business

    As a dream comes through many cares, so the speech of a fool comes with many words.

    Here: A word almost unique to Ecclesiastes. It means the work or business that keeps a person occupied, along with the worry that comes with it. Here it is the mental churn that carries over into sleep.

  7. Ecclesiastes 5:14 בְּעִנְיַ֣ן in a business of

    or wealth lost in a failed venture, so when that man has a son there is nothing to pass on.

  8. Ecclesiastes 8:16 הָ֣עִנְיָ֔ן the task

    When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the task that one performs on the earth—though his eyes do not see sleep in the day or even in the night—

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.