
Text -- Ecclesiastes 2:17 (NET)




Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics



collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
My life was a burden to me.

Wesley: Ecc 2:17 - -- All human designs and works are so far from yielding me satisfaction, that the consideration of them increases my discontent.
All human designs and works are so far from yielding me satisfaction, that the consideration of them increases my discontent.
JFB: Ecc 2:17 - -- Disappointed in one experiment after another, he is weary of life. The backslider ought to have rather reasoned as the prodigal (Hos 2:6-7; Luk 15:17-...
Disappointed in one experiment after another, he is weary of life. The backslider ought to have rather reasoned as the prodigal (Hos 2:6-7; Luk 15:17-18).
Clarke -> Ecc 2:17
Clarke: Ecc 2:17 - -- Therefore I hated life - את החיים et hachaiyim , the lives, both of the wise, the mad man, and the fool. Also all the stages of life, the ch...
Therefore I hated life -
TSK -> Ecc 2:17
TSK: Ecc 2:17 - -- I hated : Num 11:15; 1Ki 19:4; Job 3:20-22, Job 7:15, Job 7:16, Job 14:13; Jer 20:14-18; Jon 4:3, Jon 4:8; Phi 1:23-25
work : Ecc 1:14, Ecc 3:16; Eze ...

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Ecc 2:12-26
Barnes: Ecc 2:12-26 - -- Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecc 2:13. Both are brought under vanit...
Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecc 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecc 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecc 2:16, uncertainty Ecc 2:19, disappointment Ecc 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see Ecc 2:10 note) that accrues to man, is the pleasure felt Ecc 2:24-26 in receiving God’ s gifts, and in working with and for them.
What can the man do ... - i. e., "What is any man - in this study of wisdom and folly - after one like me, who, from my position, have had such special advantages (see Ecc 1:16, and compare Ecc 2:25) for carrying it on? That which man did of old he can but do again: he is not likely to add to the result of my researches, nor even to equal them."Some hold that the "man"is a reference to Solomon’ s successor - not in his inquiries, but in his kingdom, i. e., Jeroboam.
Event - Or, "hap"Rth 2:3. The verb from which it is derived seems in this book to refer especially to death. The word does not mean chance (compare Ecc 9:1-2), independent of the ordering of Divine Providence: the Gentile notion of "mere chance,"or "blind fate,"is never once contemplated by the writer of this book, and it would be inconsistent with his tenets of the unlimited power and activity of God.
Seeing that ... - Compare Ecc 1:11. Some render, "as in time past, so in days to come, all will be forgotten;"others, "because in the days to come all will have been long before forgotten."
I hated life - Compare this expression, extorted from Solomon by the perception of the vanity of his wisdom and greatness, with Rom 8:22-23. The words of Moses Num 11:15, and of Job Job 3:21; Job 6:9, are scarcely less forcible. With some people, this feeling is a powerful motive to conversion Luk 14:26.
Labour - Compare Ecc 2:4-8.
I went about - i. e., I turned from one course of action to another.
Are sorrows ... grief - Rather, sorrows and grief are his toil. See Ecc 1:13.
Nothing better for a man, than that ... - literally, no good in man that etc. The one joy of working or receiving, which, though it be transitory, a man recognizes as a real good, even that is not in the power of man to secure for himself: that good is the gift of God.
The doctrine of retribution, or, the revealed fact that God is the moral Governor of the world, is here stated for the first time (compare Ecc 3:15, Ecc 3:17 ff) in this book.
This also is vanity - Not only the travail of the sinner. Even the best gifts of God, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, so far as they are given in this life, are not permanent, and are not always (see Ecc 9:11) efficacious for the purpose for which they appear to be given.
Poole -> Ecc 2:17
Poole: Ecc 2:17 - -- I hated life my life, though accompanied with so much honour, and pleasure, and wisdom, was a burden to me, and I was apt to wish either that I had n...
I hated life my life, though accompanied with so much honour, and pleasure, and wisdom, was a burden to me, and I was apt to wish either that I had never been born, or that I might speedily die.
The work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me all human designs and works are so far from yielding me that satisfaction which I expected, that the consideration of them increaseth my discontent.
Haydock -> Ecc 2:17
Haydock: Ecc 2:17 - -- Life. Hebrew, "I hated life," as all is attended with anxiety, Romans vii. 24.
Life. Hebrew, "I hated life," as all is attended with anxiety, Romans vii. 24.
Gill -> Ecc 2:17
Gill: Ecc 2:17 - -- Therefore I hated life,.... Not strictly and simply understood, since life is the gift of God; and a great blessing it is, more than raiment, and so d...
Therefore I hated life,.... Not strictly and simply understood, since life is the gift of God; and a great blessing it is, more than raiment, and so dear to a man, that he will give all he has for it: but comparatively, in comparison of the lovingkindness of God, which is better than life; or in comparison of eternal life, which a good man desires to depart from this world, for the sake of enjoying it. The sense seems to be this, that since the case of wise men and fools was equal, he had the less love for life, the less regard to it, the less desire to continue in it; no solid happiness being to be enjoyed in anything under the sun: though some think that he was even weary of life, impatient of it, as Job, Jonah, and others have been. The Targum is,
"I hate all evil life:''
Alshech interprets it of the good things of this world, which were the cause of hurt unto him; and Aben Ezra understands, by life, living persons;
because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me; which was either wrought by himself; particularly his hard studies, and eager pursuits after knowledge and wisdom, which were a weariness to his flesh; or which were done by others, especially evil ones: so the Targum,
"for evil to me is an evil work, which is done by the children of men under the sun in this world;''
for all is vanity and vexation of spirit; See Gill on Ecc 1:14.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Ecc 2:1-26
TSK Synopsis: Ecc 2:1-26 - --1 The vanity of human courses in the works of pleasure.12 Though the wise be better than the fool, yet both have one event.18 The vanity of human labo...
MHCC -> Ecc 2:12-17
MHCC: Ecc 2:12-17 - --Solomon found that knowledge and prudence were preferable to ignorance and folly, though human wisdom and knowledge will not make a man happy. The mos...
Matthew Henry -> Ecc 2:17-26
Matthew Henry: Ecc 2:17-26 - -- Business is a thing that wise men have pleasure in. They are in their element when they are in their business, and complain if they be out of busine...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Ecc 2:17
Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 2:17 - --
"The life became hateful to me; for the work which man accomplsihes under the sun was grievous to me: because all is vain and windy effort."He hated...
Constable -> Ecc 1:12--2:18; Ecc 2:12-17
Constable: Ecc 1:12--2:18 - --A. Personal Observations 1:12-2:17
There are four parts to this section (1:12-2:17) that fall into two p...
