Vapor? Vanity? Meaningless? Which is it?

Rendering hebel as “breath” suggests that Qohelet is not saying that everything is meaningless, but rather that everything—which is important “in its time” (3:1a)—will vanish from “under the sun.” (Rendering hebel as “vapor” lacks the sense of “crucial to life,” but keeps that of ephemerality.)

This understanding of hebel makes sense of, for example, “Enjoy happiness with a woman you love all the fleeting days of life [kol yêmê hayyê heblekā]” (Eccl 9:9) —love is not “vain” or “meaningless,” but it will pass when we die, so enjoy it while God grants it.—Frederic Clarke Putnam, in Devotions on the Hebrew Bible, 149