The Vanity of Self-Indulgence
Ecc 2:1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.
1 The vanity of human courses in the works of pleasure.
12 Though the wise be better than the fool, yet both have one event.
18 The vanity of human labour, in leaving it they know not to whom.
24 Nothing better than joy in our labour; but that is God’s gift.
Ecc 2:1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.
Here the rational part of Solomon’s mind addresses the part that represents physical desire and satisfaction.
Ecc 2:2 “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?”
The choice of sensory pleasure and amusement to ultimate happiness in life represents a long step on the downward path. Compare Paul’s pertinent inquiry in Rom. 6:21.
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
Ecc 2:3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
Solomon is saying then, “I drew [or, stimulated] my body with intoxicating drink,” as if the body were a vehicle drawn by a horse under the figure of wine.
Folly. Perhaps, in this connection, “that which may lead to sin,” without being sinful in itself. The meaning seems to be that Solomon sought these experiences to get the most out of them, with a view to learning by experience what satisfaction they had to offer, but without allowing them to master him.
I wanted to see. Here Solomon explicitly states his objective. No one required him to pursue so risky and unwise a course; God could not commend him for doing it.
Ecc 2:4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards
Ecc 2:5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
Solomon indulged himself in a large program of horticulture, specializing not only in “orchards,” which we would call parks, but also in fruit orchards. He kept a royal garden on the sides of the hills south of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:4), a vineyard at Beth-haccerem, “the house of the vine,” usually identified with ‘Ain Kârim 4 mi. (6.4 km.) west of Jerusalem, but more recently with Ramoth Rahel, 21/2 mi. (4 km.) south of Jerusalem (Jer. 6:1), and another at Baal-hamon (Cant. 8:11).
Ecc 2:6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
These pools are about 3 mi. (4.8 km.) southeast of Bethlehem. Solomon may also have built fish hatcheries and raised various kinds of fish (Cant. 7:4).
Ecc 2:7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
Ecc 2:8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart.
Ecc 2:9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
Amid folly Solomon thought himself wise, as an intoxicated person thinks himself sober.
Ecc 2:10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.
Solomon here implies that he went to extremes, that there was little if anything with which he did not experiment.
Solomon certainly means no less than that he tasted the fruits of all he studied and undertook.
Ecc 2:11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
“I personally took stock of.” Banquets, festivities, music, sensual pleasure—these do not provide lasting satisfaction. All the pleasures of the world were found by Solomon to be mere “wind,” “breath,” or “a striving after wind”
Under the sun. This expression appears 29 times in Ecclesiastes, in reference to the sphere of human activity.
The Vanity of Living Wisely
Ecc 2:12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?
Solomon had experienced and taken account of the material joys of life. Now he begins an examination of wisdom and folly from the practical angle.
Solomon had proved the emptiness and futility of the pleasures of this world, and the matter might therefore be considered settled.
Ecc 2:13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.
Solomon had satisfied himself that true wisdom is worthwhile. The ways of righteousness are compared to light (Ps. 37:6; 119:105; Isa. 51:4);
the ways of wickedness are portrayed as darkness (Job 37:19; Prov. 4:19).
The apostle John sets forth Jesus Christ as the light of heaven shining forth in the darkness of this world (John 1:4, 5).
Ecc 2:14 The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.
The eyes of a wise man are where God intended them to be—in a position to look straight ahead and thereby avoid stumbling.
The fool. The wise man sees where he is going and takes the most direct route; the fool gropes in uncertainty and stumbles. Ultimately, wise man and fool are both overtaken by death.
Ecc 2:15 Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.”
In reality there is no answer to life and all its problems, aside from God. It is only as man grows in divine wisdom, and orders his life in harmony with God’s will, that he finds the true end of existence (see Matt. 6:33).
Ecc 2:16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die!
This statement is true, of course, so far as this world is concerned, but a man who orders his life in keeping with divine wisdom has an everlasting remembrance (Ps. 112:6; Prov. 10:7), and he can rejoice with confidence because his name is written in heaven (Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3).
Ecc 2:17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
All that Solomon tried was so far from providing him with the satisfaction he had hoped for that the very thought of these things served only to increase his discontent.
Grievous to me. Literally, “evil upon me” (see Job 3:24–26; 7:14–16). Vexation of spirit. Or, “a feeding on wind” (see Hosea 12:1; see on Eccl. 1:14; 2:11).
The Vanity of Toil
Ecc 2:18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
Solomon found it a distressing thought that all the great buildings he had erected and the other projects he had carried out would remain for another person’s enjoyment (see on v. 19).
Ecc 2:19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.
The maddening thing is that he has little control over the matter. Some refer Solomon’s anxiety to his concern over Rehoboam as his successor.
Control. This word in the Hebrew suggests complete power over persons or things. It is a most distressing thought that the fruits of the labors of a lifetime may be squandered by a successor (see Job 27:16, 17; Ps. 39:6; Prov. 23:5; Isa. 65:22; Luke 12:20).
Ecc 2:20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
Solomon unwillingly resigns himself to the facts as he has found them (see 1 Sam. 27:1; Job 6:26).
cc 2:21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
Ecc 2:22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?
The answer expected is, Nothing. The gain does not seem commensurate with the labor involved.
Ecc 2:23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
Ecc 2:24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,
Ecc 2:25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
Here Solomon states his conclusion, one based upon his experiments with life. The end gain, he feels, is nil; therefore why not eat and drink, and enjoy the things life has to offer.
The statement may refer to the actual enjoyment of the fruits of his labors, and to the satisfaction that comes in the carrying out of one’s plans and commitments.
From the hand of God.
It is God’s will that man should not only enjoy the fruits of his labor but also find pleasure in the carrying out of his tasks. This expression also suggests Solomon’s recognition of the overruling power of God, and the good end He has in view for His earthborn children, despite suffering and disappointment.
Ecc 2:25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
Solomon may be speaking of the work of his lifetime, and of his ability to appreciate the fruits of it more than another could.
Or, God may be the speaker (see v. 24).
In v. 25 the reading of the verse would be, “Who will eat and who will have experience apart from Him?”
Without Him.
That is, from God. The sentiment would then be that God alone is the One who stands back of the lives of all men, and that nothing may happen apart from Him.
Ecc 2:26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Solomon confesses God’s omnipotent power and universal oversight; God does not abandon man.
The sinner spends his life in labor that does not give entrance to the eternal kingdom. All he accumulates is for this life only. He toils to gather riches together; he heaps them up, but to no eternal end (see Matt. 13:12; 25:28; Luke 12:20).