📖 Biblical Definition
Hevel (הֶבֶל) is the Hebrew noun translated "vanity" in the KJV Ecclesiastes — literally breath, vapor, smoke. The image is something visible-but-uncatchable: you can see it, but you cannot grasp it. The word appears 38 times in Ecclesiastes alone — more than half its uses in all of Scripture. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities; all is vanity [havel havalim]" (1:2; 12:8). Strikingly, hevel is also the Hebrew name of Abel, the second son of Adam (Genesis 4) — possibly the first hevel: the brief-lived righteous man whose breath was cut short. The Preacher’s whole book riffs on what is vapor and what endures. Fear God endures.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Hebrew "breath/vapor"; Ecclesiastes' key word; also Abel's name.
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Hebrew hevel — literally breath, vapor, mist, smoke. Something visible-but-uncatchable: you see it, but you cannot grasp it. Used 38 times in Ecclesiastes alone, where it functions as the master-metaphor for life-under-the-sun. Translation options: "vanity" (KJV, traditional), "meaningless" (NIV, problematic), "vapor" (Eugene Peterson, more accurate to image). Also: the Hebrew name of Abel (Gen 4:2) — possibly the first hevel: the brief-lived righteous man whose blood spoke from the ground.
📖 Key Scripture
Ecclesiastes 1:14 — "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity (hevel) and vexation of spirit."
Psalm 39:5 — "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity (hevel)."
Genesis 4:2 — "And she again bare his brother Abel (Hevel)."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Translation choice matters; "vanity" sounds like a moral category; "meaningless" overcorrects to nihilism; "vapor" preserves the actual image.
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KJV's "vanity" makes hevel sound like a moral category (vanity = pride). NIV's "meaningless" overcorrects toward nihilism. The Hebrew image is more precise: breath, vapor, smoke. Things you can see but not catch. Life under the sun is hevel: real but ungraspable, present but slipping.
Recover the image: hevel is what wisps from a kettle, what curls from a candle, what fogs the breath in cold. Real, but not catch-able. That is what Qohelet sees in life-under-the-sun.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew hevel.
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['Hebrew', 'H1892', 'hevel', 'breath, vapor, vanity']
Usage
"Hevel = visible but uncatchable."
"Used 38 times in Ecclesiastes."
"Abel's name was Hevel."