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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Ecclesiastes 2 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/ecclesiastes/2.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.">Luke 12:19</a>; <a href="/psalms/42-11.htm" title="Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted within me? hope you in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.">Psalm 42:11</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Go to now.—</span><a href="/numbers/22-6.htm" title="Come now therefore, I pray you, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.">Numbers 22:6</a>; <a href="/judges/19-11.htm" title="And when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, Come, I pray you, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.">Judges 19:11</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Enjoy.—</span>Heb., <span class= "ital">see.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-2.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:2</a></div><div class="verse">I said of laughter, <i>It is</i> mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?</div>-2<a href="/proverbs/14-13.htm" title="Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.">Proverbs 14:13</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Mad.—</span><a href="/psalms/102-9.htm" title="For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.">Psalm 102:9</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-3.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:3</a></div><div class="verse">I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what <i>was</i> that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Sought.—</span>The word translated “search out” (<a href="/ecclesiastes/1-13.htm" title="And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail has God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.">Ecclesiastes 1:13</a>).<p>“Draw,” margin. There is no Biblical parallel for the use of the word in this sense. The general meaning is plain.<p><span class= "bld">Acquainting.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">guiding. </span>The word is used of the driver of an animal or the shepherd of a flock (<a href="/2_samuel/6-3.htm" title="And they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.">2Samuel 6:3</a>; <a href="/psalms/80-1.htm" title="Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you that lead Joseph like a flock; you that dwell between the cherubim, shine forth.">Psalm 80:1</a>; <a href="/isaiah/63-4.htm" title="For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.">Isaiah 63:4</a>). Kohéleth contemplated not an unrestrained enjoyment of pleasure, but one controlled by prudence.<p><span class= "bld">All the days.—</span>(See margin). This phrase occurs again in <a href="/ecclesiastes/5-17.htm" title="All his days also he eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.">Ecclesiastes 5:17</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/6-12.htm" title="For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?">Ecclesiastes 6:12</a>. We have “men of number” in the sense of “few”—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>so few that they can be numbered (<a href="/genesis/34-30.htm" title="And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.">Genesis 34:30</a>, and often elsewhere). So we may translate here “for their span of life.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-4.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:4</a></div><div class="verse">I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Houses.</span>—<a href="/1_kings/5-11.htm" title="And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.">1Kings 5:11</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/8-4.htm" title="And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath.">2Chronicles 8:4</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Vineyards.</span>—<a href="/1_chronicles/27-27.htm" title="And over the vineyards was Shimei the Ramathite: over the increase of the vineyards for the wine cellars was Zabdi the Shiphmite:">1Chronicles 27:27</a>; <a href="/songs/8-11.htm" title="Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.">Song of Solomon 8:11</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-5.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:5</a></div><div class="verse">I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all <i>kind of</i> fruits:</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Orchards.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">parks. </span>The word, which occurs also in <a href="/songs/4-3.htm" title="Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your speech is comely: your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within your locks.">Song of Solomon 4:3</a>, <a href="/nehemiah/2-8.htm" title="And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God on me.">Nehemiah 2:8</a>, is originally Persian, and passed into the Greek and into modern languages in the form of “paradise” (<a href="/luke/23-43.htm" title="And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, To day shall you be with me in paradise.">Luke 23:43</a>; <a href="/2_corinthians/12-4.htm" title="How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.">2Corinthians 12:4</a>; and in LXX., <a href="/genesis/2-10.htm" title="And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became into four heads.">Genesis 2:10</a>; <a href="/genesis/13-10.htm" title="And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as you come to Zoar.">Genesis 13:10</a>; <a href="/numbers/24-6.htm" title="As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD has planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.">Numbers 24:6</a>; <a href="/isaiah/1-30.htm" title="For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.">Isaiah 1:30</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/ecclesiasticus/24-30.htm" title="I also came out as a brook from a river, and as a conduit into a garden.">Ecclesiasticus 24:30</a>; Susan. 5:4). Parks and trees giving, not only fruit, but shade from the hot Eastern sun, were an almost necessary part of kingly luxury. The king’s garden is spoken of in <a href="/1_kings/21-2.htm" title="And Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house: and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to you, I will give you the worth of it in money.">1Kings 21:2</a>; <a href="/2_kings/21-18.htm" title="And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.">2Kings 21:18</a>; <a href="/2_kings/25-4.htm" title="And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.">2Kings 25:4</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/3-15.htm" title="But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and to the stairs that go down from the city of David.">Nehemiah 3:15</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-6.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:6</a></div><div class="verse">I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Pools.</span>—In a place south of Bethlehem are still pointed out three gigantic reservoirs, known as the Pools of Solomon (Stanley’s <span class= "ital">Jewish Church, </span>2:197). The place is probably the same as that called Etham by Josephus in his description of Solomon’s luxury (<span class= "ital">Ant. viii.</span> 7. 3). Josephus speaks of another Pool of Solomon (<span class= "ital">Bell. Jud. </span>v. 4. 2). Tanks are necessary for irrigation in a land where natural streams are few and are dried up in summer. The king’s pool is mentioned in <a href="/nehemiah/2-14.htm" title="Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.">Nehemiah 2:14</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-7.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:7</a></div><div class="verse">I got <i>me</i> servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Got me</span>.—The servants acquired by purchase are distinguished from those born in the house. (Concerning the number of Solomon’s servants, see <a href="/1_kings/4-27.htm" title="And those officers provided victual for king Solomon, and for all that came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month: they lacked nothing.">1Kings 4:27</a>; <a href="/1_kings/10-5.htm" title="And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.">1Kings 10:5</a>; and of his cattle, <a href="/1_kings/4-23.htm" title="Ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl.">1Kings 4:23</a>, <a href="/1_kings/8-63.htm" title="And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.">1Kings 8:63</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-8.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:8</a></div><div class="verse">I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, <i>as</i> musical instruments, and that of all sorts.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Peculiar treasure.—</span>The word is used of the Jewish people (<a href="/exodus/19-9.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, See, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you for ever. And Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.">Exodus 19:9</a>; <a href="/psalms/135-4.htm" title="For the LORD has chosen Jacob to himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.">Psalm 135:4</a>; <a href="/malachi/3-17.htm" title="And they shall be mine, said the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.">Malachi 3:17</a>; but generally <a href="/1_chronicles/29-3.htm" title="Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of my own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house.">1Chronicles 29:3</a>). That Solomon had tributary kings is stated (<a href="/1_kings/4-21.htm" title="And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.">1Kings 4:21</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/9-24.htm" title="And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.">2Chronicles 9:24</a>; <a href="/psalms/72-10.htm" title="The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.">Psalm 72:10</a>; <a href="/ezra/4-20.htm" title="There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and custom, was paid to them.">Ezra 4:20</a>). The word used for “provinces” here and in <a href="/ecclesiastes/5-8.htm" title="If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regards; and there be higher than they.">Ecclesiastes 5:8</a>, occurs in reference to the provinces of the Persian Empire repeatedly in the Book of Esther; <a href="/ezra/2-1.htm" title="Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and came again to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his city;">Ezra 2:1</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/7-6.htm" title="These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one to his city;">Nehemiah 7:6</a>; <a href="/daniel/8-2.htm" title="And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.">Daniel 8:2</a>. (See also <a href="/lamentations/1-1.htm" title="How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!">Lamentations 1:1</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/19-8.htm" title="Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.">Ezekiel 19:8</a>.) The word is almost wholly absent from the earlier books, save that it occurs where the “princes of the provinces” are mentioned (1 Kings 20).<p><span class= "bld">Singers.</span>—Music was regarded as a necessary accompaniment of feasts (<a href="/isaiah/5-12.htm" title="And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.">Isaiah 5:12</a>; <a href="/amos/6-5.htm" title="That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David;">Amos 6:5</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/ecclesiasticus/32-5.htm" title="A concert of musick in a banquet of wine is as a signet of carbuncle set in gold.">Ecclesiasticus 32:5</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/ecclesiasticus/49-1.htm" title="The remembrance of Josias is like the composition of the perfume that is made by the art of the apothecary: it is sweet as honey in all mouths, and as musick at a banquet of wine.">Ecclesiasticus 49:1</a>). For David’s employment of professional singers, see <a href="/2_samuel/19-35.htm" title="I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?">2Samuel 19:35</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Delights.—</span><a href="/songs/7-6.htm" title="How fair and how pleasant are you, O love, for delights!">Song of Solomon 7:6</a>; <a href="/proverbs/19-10.htm" title="Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.">Proverbs 19:10</a>; <a href="/micah/1-16.htm" title="Make you bald, and poll you for your delicate children; enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from you.">Micah 1:16</a>; <a href="/micah/2-9.htm" title="The women of my people have you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have you taken away my glory for ever.">Micah 2:9</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Musical instruments.</span>—The Hebrew word here used occurs nowhere else, and commentators are reduced to look to the etymology for the explanation of it. Their guesses are so numerous that it would be wearisome to recount them. That adopted in our version is by no means one of the most probable. The interpretation “concubines” is most in favour with commentators, though they differ among themselves as to the grounds on which they justify this translation. And it does appear unlikely that this notorious feature of Solomon’s court should be omitted in an enumeration of his luxury. It will be seen from the margin that the words “of all sorts” have nothing corresponding to them in the original, but are intended as an equivalent for a Hebrew idiom, in which a plural is intensified by prefixing a noun in the singular.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-9.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:9</a></div><div class="verse">So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.</div>(9-11) Kohéleth carried out his plan of tempering his enjoyment with discretion, but while he took his fill of the pleasure that fell to his lot, he found in it no abiding profit. He goes on in the following paragraph to complain that the wisdom and other advantages he possessed in his search for happiness render his failure the more disheartening.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-12.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:12</a></div><div class="verse">And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what <i>can</i> the man <i>do</i> that cometh after the king? <i>even</i> that which hath been already done.</div>(12) This verse presents some difficulties of translation which need not be discussed here. The Authorised Version gives the following very good sense: If the king has failed in his experiment, what likelihood is there that a private person should be more successful? Yet bearing in mind that in <a href="/ecclesiastes/5-18.htm" title="Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he takes under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for it is his portion.">Ecclesiastes 5:18</a> the “man that cometh after the king” means his successor, and also that the theme of the whole section is that in human affairs there is no progress, it is more simple to understand this verse: the king’s successor can do no more than run the same round that has been trodden by his predecessor.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-13.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:13</a></div><div class="verse">Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.</div>(13) Wisdom surely has an advantage over folly, yet how full of “vanity” is that advantage. Let the wise man have done his best, soon death comes; the wise man is forgotten, and all he has gained by his labour passes, without labour, into the hands of one who may be no inheritor of his wisdom.<p><span class= "bld">Excelleth.</span>—There is profit in wisdom more than in folly. The same word “profit<span class= "ital">” </span>is used as in <a href="/ecclesiastes/5-11.htm" title="When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?">Ecclesiastes 5:11</a>. (See Note on <a href="/ecclesiastes/1-3.htm" title="What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?">Ecclesiastes 1:3</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-14.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:14</a></div><div class="verse">The wise man's eyes <i>are</i> in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Event.—</span>Translated “hap,” or “chance” (<a href="/ruth/2-13.htm" title="Then she said, Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for that you have comforted me, and for that you have spoken friendly to your handmaid, though I be not like to one of your handmaidens.">Ruth 2:13</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/6-9.htm" title="And see, if it goes up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he has done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us.">1Samuel 6:9</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/20-26.htm" title="Nevertheless Saul spoke not any thing that day: for he thought, Something has befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.">1Samuel 20:26</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-16.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:16</a></div><div class="verse">For <i>there is</i> no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now <i>is</i> in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise <i>man</i>? as the fool.</div>(16) It might be urged on behalf of the Solomonic authorship that Solomon himself might imagine that in the days to come he and his wisdom would be forgotten, but that such a thought does not become a long subsequent writer who had been induced by Solomon’s reputation for wisdom to make him the hero of his work. It would seem to follow that the writer is here only giving the history of Solomon’s reflections, and not his ultimate conclusions. Better to omit the note of interrogation after “wise man,” and put a note of exclamation after “fool,” the “how” being used as in <a href="/isaiah/14-4.htm" title="That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!">Isaiah 14:4</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/26-17.htm" title="And they shall take up a lamentation for you, and say to you, How are you destroyed, that were inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which were strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!">Ezekiel 26:17</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-17.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:17</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun <i>is</i> grievous unto me: for all <i>is</i> vanity and vexation of spirit.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Is grievous.—</span>Rather, <span class= "ital">was.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-18.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:18</a></div><div class="verse">Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.</div>(18) Eccles. 9:19. There seems to be no special reference to Rehoboam, but only the assertion of the general principle that the wisest of men must leave all that his labour has gained to be enjoyed by another who may be destitute of wisdom. The thought is not so much that it is a hardship for the wise man to leave what he has gained, as that it is that he should have no advantage over the fool who enjoys the same without any merit.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-19.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:19</a></div><div class="verse">And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise <i>man</i> or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This <i>is</i> also vanity.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Have rule.</span>—The word occurs again in <a href="/ecclesiastes/6-2.htm" title="A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wants nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eats it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.">Ecclesiastes 6:2</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/8-9.htm" title="All this have I seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man rules over another to his own hurt.">Ecclesiastes 8:9</a>; elsewhere only in Nehemiah and Esther. and in <a href="/psalms/119-133.htm" title="Order my steps in your word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.">Psalm 119:133</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-20.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:20</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Went about.—</span><a href="/ecclesiastes/7-25.htm" title="I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:">Ecclesiastes 7:25</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/9-14.htm" title="There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:">Ecclesiastes 9:14</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/12-5.htm" title="Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:">Ecclesiastes 12:5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-21.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:21</a></div><div class="verse">For there is a man whose labour <i>is</i> in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it <i>for</i> his portion. This also <i>is</i> vanity and a great evil.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Equity.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">skill, success </span>(<a href="/ecclesiastes/4-4.htm" title="Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.">Ecclesiastes 4:4</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/5-7.htm" title="For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear you God.">Ecclesiastes 5:7</a>). The noun is peculiar to this book. The corresponding verb occurs in <a href="/ecclesiastes/10-10.htm" title="If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.">Ecclesiastes 10:10</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/11-6.htm" title="In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hand: for you know not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.">Ecclesiastes 11:6</a>; <a href="/esther/8-5.htm" title="And said, If it please the king, and if I have favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:">Esther 8:5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-23.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:23</a></div><div class="verse">For all his days <i>are</i> sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.</div>(23) The fact that the wise man must surrender his acquisitions exhibits the inutility of the painful toil by which he has gained them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-24.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:24</a></div><div class="verse"><i>There is</i> nothing better for a man, <i>than</i> that he should eat and drink, and <i>that</i> he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it <i>was</i> from the hand of God.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">Nothing better.</span>—“Not good” is the sense of the Hebrew as it stands, for it will be observed that the word “than” is in italics. But as this word might easily have dropped out by a transcriber’s error, interpreters, taking in connection <a href="/ecclesiastes/3-12.htm" title="I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.">Ecclesiastes 3:12</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/3-22.htm" title="Why I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?">Ecclesiastes 3:22</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/5-18.htm" title="Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he takes under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for it is his portion.">Ecclesiastes 5:18</a>; <a href="/ecclesiastes/8-15.htm" title="Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun.">Ecclesiastes 8:15</a>, generally agree to modify the text so as to give it the meaning of our version, according to which the sense is: “Seeing the uncertainty of the future, the only good a man can get from his labour is that present pleasure which he can make it yield to himself; and whether he can even enjoy so much as this depends on God.” If the text be not altered, the sense is: “It is not good for a man to eat, &c, seeing it depends on God whether or not that is possible.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-25.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:25</a></div><div class="verse">For who can eat, or who else can hasten <i>hereunto</i>, more than I?</div>(25) <span class= "bld">Hasten.—</span><a href="/habakkuk/1-8.htm" title="Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.">Habakkuk 1:8</a>.<p><span class= "bld">More than I.</span>—There is a various rendering, which has the authority of the LXX., and which has every appearance of being right: “without Him.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ecclesiastes/2-26.htm">Ecclesiastes 2:26</a></div><div class="verse">For <i>God</i> giveth to a man that <i>is</i> good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to <i>him that is</i> good before God. This also <i>is</i> vanity and vexation of spirit.</div>(26) On the doctrine that the wicked amass wealth for the righteous, see marginal references.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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