Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 Enjoy Good Labor and God Adds Joy to Wisdom and Knowledge
24a There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. Here is another translation based on the Hebrew text. There is nothing more pleasant for a human being than to eat and drink and go forth and make the soul agreable for labor. 24b This […]
Ecclesiastes 2:12-17 – Despair and Hatred of Vanity and Futility
12 So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the man do who will come after the king except what has already been done? The collector of sentences come to think there are no unexplored works left to investigate through the application of wisdom, madness, and folly. All works to come have come before. This expands this […]
Ecclesiastes 2:18-23 Life Ends in Painfulness, Grief, and Emptiness
18 Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19a And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my […]
Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 Experiment Complete and All was Vanity
9 Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem The experiment comes to an end and all three parts of the exercise are restated; Vanity of Wisdom, Knowledge, Madness, and Folly, Vanity of Physical Stimulation, and Vanity of Increasing Wealth. An argument can be made that these things do […]
Ecclesiastes 2 4-8 Experiment Part 3 Vanity of Increasing Wealth
4a I enlarged my works: Having explored actions of the mind and then actions of pleasure and stimulation, the collector of sentences advances to part 3 of the experiment, growing his property. גָּדַל gaw-dal’ – grow, advance, became greater, enlarge מַעֲשֶׂה mah-as-eh’ = work, property, business, possession 4b I built houses for myself, I […]
Vanity of Physical Stimulation – Ecclesiastes 2:1-3
In Part two of the experiment, the collector of sentences explores physical stimulation and it’s work and deeds. Again the preacher found physical pleasure to הָ֫בֶל – hā·ḇel – emtiness, vanity, transitory, unsatisfactory.