Ecclesiastes 2
Butler1. I SAID in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleas-
2 ure: and, behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What
3 doeth it? I searched in mine heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, mine heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
4. I made me great works; I builded me
5 houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees
6 in them of all kinds of fruit: I made me pools of water, to water therefrom the forest where
7 trees were reared: I bought menservants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all that were before me in
8. Jerusalem: 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
9 of men, concubines very many. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom re-
10 mained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them: I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labour; and this
11 was my portion from all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
12. And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that
13 which hath been already done. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light
14 excelleth darkness. The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walketh in darkness: and yet I perceived that one event
15 happeneth to them all. Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that
16 this also was vanity. For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no remembrance for ever; seeing that in the days to come all will have been already forgotten. And how doth the wise man die even as the fool!
17. So I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me: for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
18. And I hated all my labour wherein I laboured under the sun: seeing that I must leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
19. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed wisdom under the
20 sun. This also is vanity. Therefore I turned about to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labour wherein I had
21 laboured under the sun. For there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skilfulness; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity
22 and a great evil. For what hath a man of all his labour, and of the striving of his heart, wherein he laboureth under the sun?
23. For all his days are but sorrows, and his travail is grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.
24. There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I
25 saw, that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment,
26 more than I? For to the man that pleaseth him God giveth wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that pleaseth God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
1,2. SOLOMON had tried learning and discovered that he could not find solid and lasting happiness in its pursuit and acquisition; he next makes trial of pleasure. He bids his soul enjoy the gratification of appetite, of refined tastes, and of earthly grandeur. But this attempt proved more vain than the former one. J. M. M.
Innocent mirth, seasonably and moderately used, is a good thing, fits for business and helps to soften the toils and chagrins of human life; but when it is excessive and immoderate, it is foolish and fruitless. H.—Leaving out the people of God, could we analyze these two things—the world’s mirth and the world’s morality—we should make an ominous discovery. Amid all the abounding laughter and hilarity we should find no happiness truly Divine. We should find no gladness which the thought of God had kindled; we should find very little but what the thought of God would quench and extinguish it. And amid all the decorum and good conduct prevailing in many places, we should find no morality truly devout. We should find virtuous conduct prompted by the love of kindred, the love of reputation, the love of a quiet conscience, but very little prompted by the love of God. We should find the happiness all hollow and the goodness all counterfeit. Assuming godliness as the standard of genuineness, we should find the morality was not gold, but gilding, and that the mirth was not the wine of paradise, but earth’s cold water colored purple. Hamilton.
3. From chap. 1:13 to the end of this chapter he is relating his attempt to find something which should answer the question (1:3), something exempt from vanity and really “good for the sons of men.” Here (2:3) he says that in the course of this attempt, while his heart was directing him (as a charioteer directs his horses or a shepherd his sheep) with wisdom, and while he was following that guidance, he determined to draw on with him his flesh by wine, thus making his flesh, which he speaks of as distinct from himself, a confederate and subsidiary in his attempt. So, in Rom. 7:25 the apostle speaks of the mind, the flesh and himself, as if they were three distinct personalities. W. T. B.—His studies and his feasts were foils to each other, and he tried whether both mixed together would give him that satisfaction which he could not find in either separately. This Solomon proposed to himself, but he found it vanity. H.
4-8. This is a chapter of Solomon’s personal history. The reader will find much of it in its historic form in 1 Kings 9 and 10. He built a magnificent house (temple) for the Lord his God; one for himself; one for his Egyptian wife; another for a royal arsenal, “the house of the forest of Lebanon.” The last clause of v. 8, it is now generally conceded by the best critics, must have the sense—a wife and wives. The original words seem to have no reference whatever to musical instruments. “The delights of the sons of men” are amorous pleasures. The prominence of these pleasures in the actual life of Solomon forbids their omission in this list. Indeed their very prominent place in his life corresponds to their place in the climax here. It also appears in the history that he had one wife “par excellence”—viz., the daughter of Pharaoh; and besides her, many subordinate wives. H. C.
5, 6. “The Pools of Solomon” lie south of Bethlehem, upon the usual route from Hebron to Jerusalem, and about six miles from the Holy City. They lie at the south end of a small valley, and below them is another valley, narrow and rocky, about two miles in length, terminating in a close ravine, and shut in by high hills which rise as straight as palisades. Kitto.—Here are the remains of a very remarkable aqueduct which carried the water from the sealed fountain at Solomon’s Pools across the valley by means of a stone siphon, and afterward delivered it at Jerusalem at a level high enough to supply Herod’s palace and the whole city with water. The stone tubing is finished in the most beautiful manner, and the several portions are joined together by a very hard, fine cement. The so-called Pools of Solomon lie in a valley to the southwest of Bethlehem, and consist of three large tanks, so arranged that as much water as possible may be collected and stored for the use of the city. The lower pool is the largest, being 582 feet long, about 180 feet broad, and 50 feet deep, and it presents some peculiar features in its construction; round the sides are rows of seats with steps leading from one to the other, and there are several other arrangements that would lead us to believe that it was at one time used as a naval amphitheatre for nautical displays. One of the chief sources of water-supply is a subterranean fountain close to the upper pool. The distance given by Josephus, 400 stadia (six miles), agrees very fairly with the length of the aqueduct from the source to Jerusalem. Of the date of the pools themselves we can form no certain opinion, but there is nothing to preclude the idea that some of them at least were made by Solomon. Wilson.
7. Above all that were in Jerusalem before me. This expression (compare also v. 9 and 1:16) has given occasion to cavil, inasmuch as David was the only king of Israel who had preceded Solomon in Jerusalem. It is not necessary to explain this by referring to the fact that there had been a long line of kings in Jerusalem from the time of Melchizedek, and, we do not know how long before. No mention is made in this verse of kings prior to Solomon, but only of inhabitants of Jerusalem generally; and it is no unheard-of thing for private citizens to be possessed of princely fortunes, and to rival kings in the magnificence of their style of living. W. H. G.
9. In v. 3 he tells us that he indulged in wine under the guidance of wisdom or discretion. Here he tells us that his discretion was ever retained, in the midst of all his various indulgences. In other words, he never gave himself up to immoderate and excessive indulgences, but acted as a sober man, earnestly making experiments in order to learn what the true good is. Tempered by this same discretion were his indulgences at large, which he next describes. M. S.
10. He did not restrict himself in anything that he desired, or that could afford him gratification. And he had a real inward pleasure in all that he was doing, in the success of his schemes and enterprises, in the beauty, the magnificence, and refinement with which he had surrounded himself. This was my portion from all my labor. He was not a person of a morose and discontented humor, whom nothing could please. He was capable of enjoying these various sources of pleasure, and he did enjoy them. W. H. G.—The pleasure which Solomon found in the act of working, here and in chap. 3:22 and chap. 9:9, described as a portion, and also perhaps the pleasure felt in the process of acquiring wisdom (1:13; 2:13, 14), is admitted to be good, if received from God (2:26; v. 18. Compare 1 Tim. 4:4). But such pleasure being transitory is subject to vanity, and therefore does not afford a sufficient answer to the repeated question, “What profit hath a man?” (1:3.) W. T. B.
11. Then I looked on (or, turned to) all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored (or, toil that I had toiled) to do. Now comes the time of serious reflection. He ponders all this, and undertakes to estimate it at its real value. It had, indeed, afforded him a passing enjoyment. But was this, after all, man’s best and highest occupation? The gratification was certainly short-lived. All this wealth and splendor could not arrest the stroke of death; and then what would become of all these things in which he had taken so much pride? (See vs. 18-21.) As the result of these reflections he came to the conclusion all was vanity, empty, fleeting, unsubstantial. W. H. G.
He thus concludes his account of this costly and grand experiment, by including in the inventory all that could please his eyes or give the least joy to his heart. Not one of these things were beyond his reach. He had as much delight from them as mortal could derive. If any other man had experienced any worldly pleasure of which he could boast, Solomon more. But this fleeting enjoyment was all the portion or reward which he received from his labor in providing all these vast and expensive means of pleasure. There was no lasting happiness to be had as the reward or portion for all this outlay and toil. J. M. M.—The curse of unsatisfiableness lies upon the creature. Honors cannot satisfy the ambitious man, nor riches the covetous man, nor pleasures the voluptuous man. Man cannot take off the weariness of one pleasure by another, for after a few evaporated minutes are spent in pleasure, the body presently fails the mind, and the mind the desire, and the desire the satisfaction, and all the man. T. Brooks.
I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their futility, and do not regret their loss. I appraise them at their real value, which in truth is very low; whereas those who have not experienced always overrate them. When I reflect on what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I cannot persuade myself that all that frivolous hurry of bustle and pleasure of the world had any reality; but I look on all that is past as one of those dreams which opium commonly occasions, and I do by no means wish to repeat the nauseous dose for the sake of the fugitive dream. Shall I tell you that I bear this melancholy situation with that resignation that most men boast? No, I really cannot help it. I bear it because I must bear it, whether I will or no. I think of nothing but killing time the best way I can, now that time is become my enemy. It is my resolution to sleep in the carriage during the remainder of the journey. Chesterfield.—When a Christian minister speaks slightly of the world he is supposed to do it in the way of his profession, and to decry, through envy, the pleasures he is forbidden to taste. But here, I think, you have the testimony of a witness every way competent. No one ever knew the world better or enjoyed more of its favors than this nobleman. Yet you see in how poor, abject and wretched a condition, at the time when he most wanted help and comfort, the world left him and he left the world. The sentences above cited from him compose, in my humble opinion, the most striking and affecting sermon on the subject ever yet preached to mankind. Bishop Horne.
12-16. The writer has now come to the end of his experiences in regard to the means of happiness. Neither efforts to acquire wisdom nor folly in indulgence will secure this, nor even these combined (vs. 1-11). He comes then deliberately to inquire whether wisdom in itself has any pre-eminence over folly. In some respects, he says, it has; but still these are not sufficient to exempt it from the imputation of being vanity; for, first, it dies with every man who acquires it, and passes not on by heritage to another. Every one must acquire it for himself. Next, it does not exempt the wise man from the same common lot with the fool. All are the sport of accident alike, and all die at last alike and are equally forgotten. Thirdly, a repulsive aspect is given to life by the fact that all which one has laboriously and skilfully toiled to acquire passes, at his death, to others of whom he cannot know whether they will be wise or foolish. What good, then, can come to him which will compensate for all the toil and suffering and wakeful nights which he has endured in order to obtain substance? Who can look on all this but with feelings of despair? The conclusion then to which he comes is, that the only real good to be derived from all is that which we enjoy from day to day in the gratification of hunger and thirst and other appetites which are the sources of present pleasure. This is our own, and we may regard it as a kind of good. But even this, to whatever it may amount, comes all from the hand of God. Such as are good in His sight-i.e., the objects of His favor, may sometimes be permitted to enjoy what the sinner, His enemy, has labored to provide. But, after all, even this will not exempt the whole from the category of vanity and empty pursuit. Such pleasures are too low and fleeting to confer substantial good on rational beings. M. S.
12. The text admits of this explanation: “What is any man that in this study of wisdom and folly shall come after me, who, from my position, have had such peculiar advantages (see 1:16, and compare 2:25) for carrying it on? That which man did of old he can but do again; he is not likely to add to the result of my researches, nor even to equal them.” W. T. B.
13. From the view thus taken of sagacity or wisdom, considered in respect to its power of conferring solid and lasting happiness, the writer turns, for a moment, to the consideration of the natural and essential difference between wisdom and folly in themselves considered or viewed merely in respect to their proper nature. In this view of the matter he felt himself compelled to yield to the superior claims of wisdom. It gives insight into things, and explains many of them which must remain dark to folly. The pre-eminence asserted is illustrated and confirmed by the next verse.
14. To say that one’s eyes are in his head means that he has eyes, and that they are in their proper place and will be appropriately employed -i.e., that the man who has them will employ them to see. But the fool, who has no mental eye, must of course walk in darkness. Yet the latter part of the verse dashes down, in the main, the hopes which any one might be inclined to cherish from the circumstance of the essential difference between the two. One destiny awaits all-i.e., they have after all a common lot; all are subject to toil and suffering and death, to loss of property, loss of friends, and loss of hopes. M. S.
15-17. “Saying in the heart” is thoughtful reflection, talking to one’s self, and turning the matter over and over in one’s mind. As it happeneth to the fool, so it will happen to me, even to me (wise though I am); why, then, have I been so very wise? That is, what comes of it? Of what use does it prove to be to me, since in the end I must succumb to the common destiny of all mortal men, whether wise or foolish. Common to both is this inevitable oblivion that sweeps over the deeds and the life of all mankind. They will none of them be long remembered. “That which is now, in the days to come will have been long ago forgotten,” and therefore be quite lost from the thought of all the living. The last clause of v. 16 is better read as an exclamation of sadness: “And how dieth the wise man like the fool!” Alas! to think that the wise no less than the fool must die; that both are doomed to the same inevitable destiny of death! Taking this view of the subjection of all human life to this revolting necessity of passing away from earth and being forevermore forgotten, I hated life, for all the work done under the sun appeared odious to me. My heart sickened at the thought of such death and oblivion-the unavoidable conditions of all human existence. H. C.
15. If death is the end of man, what sufficient motive have we for cultivating our minds and extending our knowledge? Why should we enter upon a course of intellectual cultivation; why store our minds with knowledge, if, in the midst of this glorious pursuit, with new fields opening before us rich in mines of wealth and the thirst of acquisition ungratified, we are to be struck down and the intellectual light forever quenched within us? And who would not dread to be endowed with powers capable of such vast compass—with an imagination that takes a universe for its field, or can find a world in an atom—at home both in the past and in the future, and making both equally subservient to its purposes—if in their full and vigorous exercise they are to be brought to a sudden and everlasting close? If the only end to be reached by study is the grief of having the objects of knowledge multiply around us, and the despair of ever knowing as much as we are ignorant of, the savage or the idiot may well be congratulated on their happiness. J. M. M.
16. Of the wise man no remembrance. If there be no eternal remembrance of the world’s wise men any more than of its fools, it is otherwise with the wise ones of the heavenly kingdom. God has so arranged it that “the righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance.” The only posthumous fame that is truly permanent is the memory of God, and the only deathless names are theirs for whose living persons He has found a place in His own love, and in the love of holy beings like-minded with Himself. Hamilton.
17. I hated life. This expression, extorted from Solomon by the perception of the vanity of his wisdom and greatness, may be compared with Paul’s emphatic words (Rom. 8:22, 23) in view of the subjection of creation to vanity. The words of Moses (Num. 11:15) and of Job (3:21; 6:9) are scarcely less forcible. W. T. B.
18. He must leave them. He could not at death take them away with him, nor any share of them, nor should he return any more to them, nor would the remembrance of them do him any good.
19. He knows not whom he must leave it to (for God makes heirs), or what he will prove to whom he leaves it, whether a wise man or a fool, a wise man that will make it more, or a fool that will bring it to nothing; yet he shall have rule over all my labor, and foolishly undo that which his father wisely did. H.
20. He speaks just as every man who gives himself to serious, calm reflection, however successful he may have been in his enterprises, must speak. If death is to end all; if he has no treasures laid up in heaven; if there be no heaven in which to lay up treasures, well may he give up his heart to despair in respect to the work to which his strength and life have been devoted. J. M. M.
22,23. These verses look simply at the case of the man who is toiling to amass wealth.
How hard he works! How diligently he plans! How intense are his anxieties! Sleep will not come at his bidding. Hengstenberg well translates, “For all his days are sorrow, and discontent is his plague.” Truly such a life is a vanity. H. C.
24. The best use, therefore, to be made of the wealth of this world is to use it cheerfully, to take the comfort of it and do good with it. We must not over-toil ourselves so as, in pursuit of more, to rob ourselves of the comfort of what we have. We must not over-hoard for hereafter, nor lose our own enjoyment of what we have to lay it up for those that shall come after us, but serve ourselves out of it first. But observe, He would not have us to give up business and take our ease that we may eat and drink; no, we must enjoy good in our labor; we must use these things not to excuse us from, but to make us diligent and cheerful in our worldly business. H.
Solomon meant to say that the surest and the best of all the good that is properly of this world consists in the moderate enjoyment of our daily bread, and in our labor to supply these natural wants of those who are dependent upon us. So much God gives us to enjoy, and it should be accepted as His gift. These moderate enjoyments are here put in contrast with the corroding anxieties, the ever-grasping spirit and never-ceasing labors of the man who is bent on hoarding immense treasures and building up a vast estate. Solomon would say, Take the moderate enjoyment of what suffices to meet your wants, and desist from those infinite toils for what you can never enjoy. H. C.—This sentiment recurs repeatedly as the result of the author’s meditations upon life. (See 3:12, 13, 22; 5:18-20; 7:14; 8:15; 9:7-10; 11:9.) From a comparison of these passages together with chap. 5:1-7 and the whole of chap. 12, it is manifest that it is not sensual indulgence which the author commends as the best thing a man can attain in a world of vanity, but only such a cheerful, joyful participation of present blessings as is consistent with the thought of God and retribution, or with obedience to the commands of the Creator. Noyes.
It is from the hand of God. The good things themselves that we enjoy are not only the products of His creating power, but the gifts of His providential bounty to us. And then they are truly pleasant to us when we take them from the hand of God as a Father, when we eye His wisdom giving us that which is fittest for us and acquiesce in it, and taste His love and goodness, relish them and are thankful for them.
A heart to enjoy them, too, is the gift of God’s grace. Unless He gives us wisdom to make a right use of what He has in His providence bestowed upon us, and withal peace of conscience that we may discern God’s favor in the world’s smiles, we cannot make our souls enjoy any good in them. H.
25. Here, as in v. 12, Solomon appeals to his own experience as conclusive by reason of his superior advantages. This verse may be read as a parenthesis.
26. Even the best gifts of God, so far as they are given in this life “beneath the sun,” are not permanent, and are not always efficacious for the purpose for which they appear to us to be given. Compare Augustine—“Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it repose in Thee.” W. T. B.—There is as much disguise thrown round the expressions of the displeasure as of the love of God. To the worldly man prosperity is as often a cloaked enemy as to the Christian adversity is a cloaked friend. And of the two the disguise is far easier to penetrate when a spiritual benefit comes in the form of earthly trial, than when a spiritual calamity comes in the form of earthly indulgence and success. Yet the one is as often, at least, the minister of the Lord’s anger as the other is of His love. W. Hanna.
Thus we are brought, step by step, after passing prominent particulars in review, to the general conclusion that no possessions or pursuits of men secure the good which they need and seek for, and that the most we can make out of all these is the enjoyment which we experience from the actual satisfying of the wants and cravings of our physical nature. Even this is not the result of our own efforts merely, but is bestowed upon us by the special favor of God. M. S.
The self-centred life is a weary round and round; it comes home to lodge every night. It is the fountain of the ennuic and dissatisfaction of the world. It groans for a change, but takes none. It seeks life in an eternally recurring self. Man has not begun to live till he has carried the centre of life away from self into the heavens. All that is good and lovely, all that is sweet and peaceful, all that is heroic and wise, all that is truest in life, is born of this self-distanced theory of life; for it is the measure to which the morning stars first set the song of life. G. S. Eldridge.