Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair,.... Of ever finding happiness in anything here below. He "turned about" , as the word signifies dropped his severe studies of wisdom, and his eager pursuits of pleasure; and desisted from those toilsome works, in which he had employed himself; and went from one thing to another, and settled and stuck at nothing, on purpose to relax his mind, as the Syriac version renders it; to divest it of all anxious thought and care, and call it off from its vain and fruitless undertakings; and be no more concerned about or thoughtfulof all the labour which I took under the sun; and what will be the consequence and issue of it; but quietly leave all to an all wise disposing Providence; and not seek for happiness in anything under the sun, but in those things that are above it; not in this world, but in the world to come.
Bible Commentary
Ecclesiastes 2:20
Ecclesiastes 2:20
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible · John Gill (1697–1771) · Public Domain
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Ecclesiastes 2 — OverviewEcclesiastes 2 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleSolomon having pronounced all vanity, and particularly knowledge and
learning, which he was so far from giving himself joy of that he found
the increase of it did but increase his sorrow, in this chapter he goes…Ecclesiastes 2 — OverviewEcclesiastes 2 · Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeEcclesiastes 2:1, The vanity of human courses in the works of pleasure; Ecclesiastes 2:12, Though the wise be better than the fool, yet both have one event; Ecclesiastes 2:18, The vanity of human labour, in leaving it…Ecclesiastes 2 — OverviewEcclesiastes 2 · John Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleSolomon, having made trial of natural wisdom and knowledge in its utmost extent, and found it to be vanity, proceeds to the experiment of pleasure, and tries whether any happiness was in that, Ec 2:1. As for that which…Ecclesiastes 2:1-26Ecclesiastes 2:1-26 · The Pulpit CommentaryEXPOSITIONEcclesiastes 2:12-26Ecclesiastes 2:12-26 · The Pulpit CommentarySection 3. Vanity of wisdom, in view of the fate that awaits the wise man equally with the fool, and the uncertainty of the future of his labors, especially as man is not master of his own fate.Ecclesiastes 2:17-26Ecclesiastes 2:17-26 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleBusiness is a thing that wise men have pleasure in. They are in their
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