Ecclesiastes 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

Rather than going to our world dictionary to determine the meaning of vanity, let us look at the Hebrew word for vanity is hebel.

vapour, breath

Not just breath, but breath with vapor. In our natural world that is an exhaled breath, not an inhaled breath.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The Hebrew word for Spirit is ruwach which is also defined as breath.

wind, breath, mind, spirit

The greater meaning shown here is that the breath comes from an external source as the wind is external and is inhaled. Note the remaining and important distinctions that is carried into this inhalation; mind and spirit. Whose mind and whose spirit? God’s of course, it says that right there in Gen. 1:2.

Psalm 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

The word for breath here is nĕshamah and is a spoken breath, not merely an exhalation.

Breath, spirit

Solomon begins Ecclesiastes expressing his frustration that we all inhale the spirit but so few of us exhale the spirit. Where else in scripture is this frustration expressed?

Psalm 32:1-4 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

When I kept silent and did not breathe the Word of life.