{"id":9374,"date":"2026-03-13T19:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9374"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:08:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:08:02","slug":"ecclesiastes-24-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9374","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiastes 2:4-11"},"content":{"rendered":"

4\u00a0<\/sup>I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

5\u00a0<\/sup>I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all\u00a0kinds of fruit trees in them.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

6\u00a0<\/sup>I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

7\u00a0<\/sup>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.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

8\u00a0<\/sup>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,\u00a0and\u00a0musical instruments of all kinds.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

9\u00a0<\/sup>So I became great and excelled\u00a0more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n
\n

10\u00a0<\/sup>Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. <\/span>I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, f<\/span>or my heart rejoiced in all my labor; a<\/span>nd this was my reward from all my labor.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

11\u00a0<\/sup>Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done a<\/span>nd on the labor in which I had toiled; a<\/span>nd indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. <\/span>There was\u00a0no profit under the sun.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

great works (v.4) \u2014 his palace and the temple.<\/h3>\n

silver and gold (v.8) \u2014 In Solomon’s treasury, these metals were as common as stones (2 Chronicles 1:15).<\/h3>\n

delights of the sons of men (v.8) \u2014 his harem, sex<\/h3>\n

musical instruments of all kinds (v.8) \u2014 This should probably be translated as “concubines.” Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), and it seems very unlikely that he would list the things he gathered to find meaning without listing them. And if<\/em> this isn’t a reference to them, then he didn’t<\/em> list them anywhere. One commentary says this isn’t a mistranslation but a euphemism for sex.<\/h3>\n

From the pursuit of wisdom the Preacher turned his energies to the creation of a world within the crooked world; a world all his own filled with his own creations. Houses, vineyards, and orchards, literally parks, filled his secular Eden. Servants and singers populated his garden. … In all of this he kept his league with wisdom (v.9) and with every new [creation] act he questioned his heart as to that “thing’s” ability to add meaning and profit to his life under the sun. \u2014 KJV Commentary, page 738.<\/span><\/h3>\n

My wisdom remained with me (v.9) \u2014 Even while Solomon was indulging in his acquisitions, he was using his wisdom to to see if they brought meaning and happiness<\/h3>\n

[Solomon] found that though he was interested for the time (v.10), yet his share or “portion” of all his toil was vanity and vexation of spirit, and provided no profit, i.e., no satisfying happiness (v.11). \u2014 Williams, page 440.<\/span><\/h3>\n

He found temporary pleasure in his pursuits but no lasting value (v.10).<\/h3>\n

I looked on (v.11) = I faced the facts<\/h3>\n

Solomon had all the wealth and power at his disposal to fully indulge the flesh\u2014and he did. The word “labor” in vs.10-11 shows that he conducted his pursuit of pleasure as if it were work\u2014he toiled at it. He concluded that even if one gave himself totally over to the lust of the flesh it does not satisfy. The experience still leaves one feeling empty. \u2014 Grace, page 1169.<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4\u00a0I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. 5\u00a0I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all\u00a0kinds of fruit trees in them. 6\u00a0I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecclesiastes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9374"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9545,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9374\/revisions\/9545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}