rd

Ecclesiastes 2

Pleasures, sumptuous buildings, riches and possessions are but vanity. 14 The wise and the fool have both one end, touching the bodily death.
1.I said in mine heart, Go to now, I wil prove athee with joy: therefore take thou pleasure in pleasant things: and behold, this also is vanity.
2.I said of laughter, Thou art mad: and of joy, What is this that thou doest?
3.I sought in mine heart ^to give my self to wine, and to lead mine heart in bwisdom, and to take hold of folly, til I might see where is that goodness of the children of men, which they ^enjoy under the sun: the whole number of the days of their life.
4.I have made my great works: I have built me houses: I have planted me vineyards.
5.I have made me gardens and ^orchards, and planted in them trees of all fruit.
6.I have made me cisterns of water, to water therewith the woods that grow with trees.
7.I have gotten servants and maids, and had children born in the chouse: also I had great possession of beves and sheep above all that were before me in Jerusalém.
8.I have gathered unto me also silver and gold, and the chief treasures of Kings and provinces: I have provided me men singers and women singers, and the ddelites of the sons of men, as a woman etaken captive, and women taken captives.
9.And I was great, and increased above all that were before me in Jerusalém: also my wisdom fremained with me.
10.And what soever mine eyes desired, I withheld it not from them: I withdrew not mine heart from any joy: for mine heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my gportion of all my travail.
11.Then I looked on all my works that mine hands had wrought, & on the travail that I had laboured to do: and behold, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit: & there is no profit under the sun.
12.¶ And I turned to behold hwisdom, and madness and folly: (for who is the man that ^will come after the King in things, which men now have done?)
13.Then I saw that there is profit in wisdom, more then in folly: as the light is more excellent then darkness.
14.*For the wise man’s ieyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness: yet I know also that the same kcondition falleth to them all.
15.Then I thought in mine heart, It befalleth unto me, as it befalleth to the fool. Why therefore do I then labour to be more wise? And I said in mine heart, that this also is vanity.
16.For there shalbe no remembrance of the wise, nor of the fool lfor ever, for that that now is, in the days to come shal all be forgotten. And mhow dyeth the wise man, as doeth the fool?
17.Therefore I hated life: for the work that is wroght under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity, & vexation of the spirit.
18.I hated also all my labour, wherein I had travailed under the sun, which I shal leave to the man that shalbe after me.
19.And who knoweth whether he shalbe wise or foolish? yet shal he have rule over all my labour, wherein I have travailed, & wherein I have shewed my self wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
20.Therefore I went about to make mine heart nabhor all the labour, wherein I had travailed under the sun.
21.For there is a man whose travail is in wisdom, and in knowledge and in equity: yet to a man that hath not travailed herein, shal he ogive his portion: this also is vanity & a great grief.
22.For what hath man of all his travail and grief of his heart, wherein he hath travailed under the sun?
23.For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief, his heart also taketh not rest in the night, which also is vanity.
24.There is no profit to man but that he eat, and drink, and pdelite his soul with the profit of his labour. I saw also this, that it was of the hand pof God.
25.For who could eat, and who could haste to qoutward things more then I?
26.Surely to a man that is good in his sight, God giveth wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth pain, to gather, and to heap to give to him that is good before God, this is also vanity, and vexation of the spirit.

Notes

1-a.
Solomon makes this discourse with himself, as though he would try whether there were contentation in ease and pleasures.
3-^.
Ebr., draw my flesh to wine.
3-^-1.
Ebr., do.
3-b.
Albeit I gave myself to pleasures, yet I thought to keep wisdom and the fear of God in my heart, and govern my affairs by the same.
5-^.
Ebr., paradises.
7-c.
Meaning, of the servants or slaves, which he had bought: so the children born in their servitude, were the master’s.
8-d.
That is, whatsoever men take pleasure in.
8-e.
Which were the most beautiful of them that were taken in war, as Judges 5.30. Some understand by these words, not women but instruments of music.
9-f.
For all this God did not take his gift of wisdom from me.
10-g.
This was the fruit of all my labour, a certain pleasure mixed with care, which he calls vanity in the next verse.
12-^.
Or, compare with the King.
12-h.
I bethought with myself whether it were better to follow wisdom, or my own affections and pleasures, which he calls madness.
14-*.
Pro. 17.24.
14-i.
He foresees things, which the fool can not for lack of wisdom.
14-k.
For both die and are forgotten, as verse 16, or they both alike have prosperity or adversity.
16-l.
Meaning, in this world.
16-m.
He wonders that men forget a wise man, being dead, as soon as they do a fool.
20-n.
That I might seek the true felicity which is in God.
21-o.
Among other griefs this was not the least to leave that which he had gotten by great travail, to one that had taken no pain therefore, and whom he knew not whether he were a wise man or a fool.
24-p.
When man has all laboured, he can get no more then food & refresh- ing, yet he confesses, also this comes of God’s blessing as Ch. 3.13.
25-q.
Meaning, to pleasures.