3 What is a man profited by all his work which he does under the sun?
All his days are in the dark, and he has much sorrow, pain, disease, and trouble.
What profit has the worker in the work which he does?
Then I saw all the works which my hands had made, and everything I had been working to do; and I saw that all was to no purpose and desire for wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
Let your work not be for the food which comes to an end, but for the food which goes on for eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you, for on him has God the Father put his mark.
Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money. Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
This again I have seen under the sun as wisdom and it seemed great to me.
See, is it not the pleasure of the Lord of armies that the peoples are working for the fire and using themselves up for nothing?
Why do you give your money for what is not bread, and the fruit of your work for what will not give you pleasure? Give ear to me, so that your food may be good, and you may have the best in full measure.
This is evil in all things which are done under the sun: that there is one fate for all, and the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; while they have life their hearts are foolish, and after that--to the dead.
So I gave praise to joy, because there is nothing better for a man to do under the sun than to take meat and drink and be happy; for that will be with him in his work all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun. When I gave my mind to the knowledge of wisdom and to seeing the business which is done on the earth (and there are those whose eyes see not sleep by day or by night), Then I saw all the work of God, and that man may not get knowledge of the work which is done under the sun; because, if a man gives hard work to the search he will not get knowledge, and even if the wise man seems to be coming to the end of his search, still he will be without knowledge.
Who is able to say what is good for man in life all the days of his foolish life which he goes through like a shade? who will say what is to be after him under the sun?
Every man to whom God has given money and wealth and the power to have pleasure in it and to do his part and have joy in his work: this is given by God.
And who is to say if that man will be wise or foolish? But he will have power over all my work which I have done and in which I have been wise under the sun. This again is to no purpose.
Then I came back, and I saw an example of what is to no purpose under the sun.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The Book of Ecclesiastes
Chapter 1
In this chapter we have,
And, if this is vanity and vexation, all other things in this world, being much inferior to it in dignity and worth, must needs be so too. A great scholar cannot be happy unless he be a true saint.
Ecc 1:1-3
Here is,
Ecc 1:4-8
To prove the vanity of all things under the sun, and their insufficiency to make us happy, Solomon here shows,
Ecc 1:9-11
Two things we are apt to take a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in, and value ourselves upon, with reference to our business and enjoyments in the world, as if they helped to save them from vanity. Solomon shows us our mistake in both.
Ecc 1:12-18
Solomon, having asserted in general that all is vanity, and having given some general proofs of it, now takes the most effectual method to evince the truth of it,