Verse by Verse

⁹ What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?

¹⁰ I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

¹² I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,

¹³ and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

Verse 9 is asking what profit man receives for all his work.

God has given man an awareness of Himself (v.11), but it is suppressed by our sin nature (Romans 1:18-21). … Though man has an awareness of eternity, of “something more,” he cannot figure out God’s place in its entirety (thus his frustration and sense of futility). — Grace, page 1171.

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God has not created man without the ability to appreciate the importance of what he is doing. He has implanted eternity in the heart of man. To give into the heart is a Hebraism for giving or speaking in a flattering way. Man alone has within him the ability to appreciate what God is doing. It is beyond man to reason out the significance of each time event. He cannot know, even if he torments himself, the hours when events will come to pass. Indeed, to attempt the unraveling of the future is an exercise forbidden to man (Isaiah 47:12). He can, however, in the spirit of Romans 8:28 know that God is working all things together for His good and with the knowledge of that reality he can enter into the path of profit and joy. — KJV Commentary, page 740. 

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The decision to break with anxiety and travail is not a decision that man is free to make. It is not in his ability to do it. He may will it, but he cannot perform it (Romans 7:18). The ability to enjoy the things that are presented and to have a joyful heart is the gift of God. — KJV Commentary, page 740.

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The eating and drinking and toiling, and the enjoyment resulting therefrom means legitimate labor as man’s daily duty; but not as the end, or purpose, of his being. — Williams, page 441.

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Recognizing God’s sovereignty over all things (vs.1-8) is the key to enjoying life (v.13). — Grace, page 1171.

²⁴ Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.

²⁵ For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

²⁶ For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

A life of honest labor ministers a happiness appointed by the hand of God. “Eat and drink” in this verse is to be understood as enjoyment of needful food with an appetite quickened by honest “labor” … He who thus works for his daily bread in obedience to the Divine Will (v.26), to him God recompenses wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the disobedient He gives the fruitless toil of amassing wealth for honest men to enjoy. This latter “travail” Solomon found to be vanity and a striving after wind.

“Labor” (v.24) means fruitful toil, “travail” (v.26) on the other hand means toil that only gives fatigue. Had Solomon profited by the Proverbs of the wise men, and had he listened to his father’s dying words (1 Chronicles 28:9), he would have been spared the suffering here recorded. — Williams, pages 440-441.

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To “eat and drink” signify contentment. It is God’s will for us to be content with life (Psalm 104:13-15; 1 Timothy 6:6-8). — Grace, page 1170.

My take on these verses is that God wants us to be content and enjoy the things He has provided for us — but always in the context of His provision. We enjoy food as from Him and thank Him for it. We experience satisfaction from labor well done because we do it to glorify Him. It’s when we enjoy things while disregarding Him or in order to give our lives meaning, that those things become worthless.

¹⁸ Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me.

¹⁹ And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

²⁰ Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.

²¹ For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

²² For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?

²³ For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

The elusive quality of one’s work and possessions caused the Preacher to despair. … To leave the fruit of all one’s labor to one who may indeed be a fool surely constitutes one of life’s most bitter disappointments. The days of a man are therefore filled with travail, and at night upon his bed he can find  no rest for his grief-stricken heart. Labor then cannot provide man with the key to profit in this life. — KJV Commentary, page 738.

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The knowledge that however artistic and beautiful may be the works of a clever man (v.21) … yet must he leave all to his successor who may be a fool, and this saddened him. The wise man’s “portion” or share, is sorrow, grief and vanity, but his foolish successor’s share is the possession, without effort, of all that his father painfully toiled to bring into being. This Solomon found to be vanity and a great calamity (v.21); and accordingly he gave up as desperate all hope of solid satisfaction from his toil (v.20). His son Rehoboam was his success, and he was a fool. — Williams, page 440.

there is a man (v.21) — Solomon was referring to himself. Paul used a similar phrase to refer to himself in 2 Corinthians 12:2.

[Solomon’s] fears turned out to be justified when his unwise son Rehoboam lost the great majority of his kingdom and in a short time undid most of what Solomon had accomplished (1 Kings 12:6-24). — Grace, page 1170.

evil (v.22) — Not sinful, but calamitous, causing distress

in the night his heart takes no rest (v.23) — Paul instructed believers not to worry about anything (Philippians 4:6). He also told believers, “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Colossians 3:23). So, instead of working to find meaning in life, work to glorify God.

What is the point of working hard and accomplishing anything if it all comes to nothing in the end? Remember … it was sin that has subjected work to frustration and futility (Genesis 3:17-19). What Solomon lamented was not the futility of the work itself, but work done “under the sun.” When viewed without an eternal perspective, the fleeting nature of all that we accomplish is depressing. But praise be to God that this is NOT our perspective! As believers in Christ, we have an eternal perspective! Thus, we know that our “labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). [We can] do all our work with diligence and cheerfulness because we KNOW that we “shall receive the reward of the inheritance” because we serve the Lord Christ! — Grace, page 1170

¹⁵ So I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, it also happens to me, and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.”

¹⁶ For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. and how does a wise man die? As the fool!

¹⁷ Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

I turned (v.12) — Implies a deeper study

The question (v.12) “what can the man do” etc. means no one could, or can, possibly compete with King Solomon in determining the vanity of things under the sun, for no one ever was, or will be, as efficiently equipped as he was for this experiment. — Williams, page 440.

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Verse 12b is saying that if a man comes after Solomon and decides to do the same study of wisdom and folly, what can that man do except what Solomon has already done? (And he would come to the same conclusion.) — Grace, page 1169.

darkness (v.14) — symbolizing evil and foolishness

It is certain that wisdom is relatively superior to folly; for the wise man makes a better job of life than the fool. But this relative is cancelled out by the absolute of death, a fact which seriously challenges the worth of wisdom. There is a paradox about wisdom; wisdom means looking forward. While the fool, like the grasshopper, lives for the moment, the wise man, like the ant, dips into the future; he takes his bearings from tomorrow, and endeavors to plot his course accordingly (v.14). Yet this wisdom is most hazardous; for it is not in our power to foresee, still less to control, the future. — Guthrie, page 572.

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Although wisdom is certainly preferable to folly, the pursuers of both are subject to a common lot. One event unites all. The Preacher suffers from no illusion about life under the sun, and he does not seek to soften perplexing issues. Death brings about the extinction of every project and robs every man of the enjoyment of dignity. The fool and the wise man die alike. “Therefore I hated life.” — KJV Commentary, page 739.

In Proverbs (5:5-8), Solomon encouraged his readers to seek wisdom. He wasn’t saying, in Ecclesiastes 2, that wisdom has no value—only that wisdom, by itself doesn’t give life meaning.

Both the wise and the foolish are soon forgotten (v.16).

Life was a burden and to be hated because both wise and fool share the same fate. — Grace, page 1169.

⁴ I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards.

⁵ I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

⁶ I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.

⁷ I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.

⁸ I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds.

⁹ So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity.

² I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?”

³ I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.

enjoy (v.1) — totally enjoy

madness (v.2) = folly which results from loss of discernment

mirth (v.2) = thoughtful pleasure

“Under the heaven” (v.3) is the opposite of “under the sun.” The latter is living without regard to God or eternity, whereas the former is living with an awareness of Him and an understanding that this life is not all there is. — Grace, page 1169.

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The dissatisfaction and vexation of spirit which Solomon experienced in testing the insufficiency of industry, philosophy and pleasure, were the more painful because of his possession of the super-human wisdom which remained with him (v.9); for the greater the capacity of enjoyment the greater the disappointment and vexation. His misery was, therefore, greater than that of any who preceded or succeeded him, because of this unique gift of wisdom; and if ordinary intelligence finds everything “under the sun” to be vanity, extraordinary intelligence finds it to be “vanity of vanities.” — Williams, page 440.

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The splendors of Solomon’s court were known to all (cf. 1 Kings 5–10). The Preacher now recounts his attempts to find something of value or profit in the pursuit of those pleasures that the wealth of such a court afforded. He temporarily hung all of his inhibitions in the closet and entered into the pursuit of pleasure with zest. … He sought, literally searched out, the satisfaction that could be achieved by giving himself to wine. — KJV Commentary, page 738.

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Solomon is not speaking here (v.2) of a sober enjoyment of the things of this world, but of intemperate pleasure, whose two attendants, laughter and mirth, are introduced by a beautiful prosopopeia, as two persons, whom he treats with the utmost contempt. — Treasury, page 423

This almost reads like Solomon was checking items off a list as he attempted to find the meaning of life. Item next: wanton pleasures. But superficial fun (laughter) only led to madness, and a more reasoned pursuit of fun didn’t accomplish anything. Next he tried wine, but while he was doing all this, he wasn’t just a participant but also an observer. He analyzed the results of the pursuits of pleasure to see if any of them were worthwhile.

¹⁶ I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.”

¹⁷ And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.

¹² I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

¹³ And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.

¹⁴ I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

⁹ What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

¹¹ No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

under the sun (v.9) — life with a time-bound, man-centered point of view.

What seems to man to be new is only so because of man’s limited knowledge. … Man may hope to establish such a reputation for greatness that he will never be forgotten. … Men of former generations forgot all too quickly that which preceded them; and coming generations will repeat their error. … If you consider purely earthly values, what are you profited? What do you achieve? What is left to you as your portion? … KJV Commentary, page 737.

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There is in reality “nothing new” (v.10); that is, nothing occurs, or can occur, which can transport [a person] into a new world, or give him new joys or emotions. Modern inventions are only “new” in a comparative and not in an absolute sense; and verse 11 declares that the records of the antediluvian world are as totally destroyed as shall be the records of this present world. The former were destroyed by water; the latter shall be destroyed by fire. — Williams, pages 439-440

The philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Solomon said that nobody remembers the past and everyone is condemned to repeat it.