the Week of Proper 22 / Ordinary 27
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Updated Bible Version
Ecclesiastes 2:20
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Therefore I turned my heart to despair of all my labor for which I had labored under the sun.
Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.
So I turned me to refrayne my mynde from all such trauayle as I toke vnder the sunne,
Then I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour wherewith I had laboured under the sun.
Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.
And I turned to make my heart despair over all the labor which I labored under the sun.
So I became sad about all the work I had done.
Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.
Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despaire of all the labour which I tooke vnder the Sunne.
Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
So I turned me to refrayne my mynde from all soch trauayle, as I toke vnder the Sonne:
That's when I called it quits, gave up on anything that could be hoped for on this earth. What's the point of working your fingers to the bone if you hand over what you worked for to someone who never lifted a finger for it? Smoke, that's what it is. A bad business from start to finish. So what do you get from a life of hard labor? Pain and grief from dawn to dusk. Never a decent night's rest. Nothing but smoke.
So I turned aside and let my heart despair over all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.
Therefore I turned about to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor wherein I had labored under the sun.
So my mind was turned to grief for all the trouble I had taken and all my wisdom under the sun.
Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor which I took under the sun.
So I began to despair about all the fruit of my labor for which I worked so hard on earth.
I thought about all my hard work, and I felt depressed.
Thus I came to despair over all the things I had worked for under the sun.
Therefore I went about to make mine heart abhorre all the labour, wherein I had trauailed vnder the sunne.
Therefore I changed my view concerning all the toil in which I had labored under the sun.
Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.
Therefore I turned about to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labour wherein I had laboured under the sun.
So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world.
So I was filled with sorrow for all I had worked for under the sun.
so I went about to dismiss from my heart all my labour wherein I had laboured under the sun.
Therefore I turned about to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labour wherein I had laboured under the sun.
So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.
So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun,
Then resolved I, to give my heart over to despair, - concerning all the toil, wherein I had toiled, under the sun.
Wherefore I left off and my heart renounced labouring anymore under the sun.
So I began to despair of all the toil with which I toiled under the sun.
So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,
Therefore I completely despaired over all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.
So I became sad about all the hard work I had done here on earth.
So I came to regret that I had worked so hard.
So I began to give myself over to despair concerning all my work that I had labored at under the sun.
Wherfor Y ceesside, and myn herte forsook for to trauele ferthere vnder sunne.
So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,
And I turned round to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labour that I laboured at under the sun.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Genesis 43:14, Job 17:11-15, Psalms 39:6, Psalms 39:7, 1 Corinthians 15:19, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 1 Thessalonians 3:4
Reciprocal: Psalms 127:2 - vain Ecclesiastes 3:19 - for Ecclesiastes 7:25 - I applied mine heart
Cross-References
And Yahweh God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a matching helper for him.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair,.... Of ever finding happiness in anything here below. He "turned about" y, 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 thoughtful
of 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.
y וסבותי "versus sum", Montanus; "et ego verti me", Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see Ecclesiastes 2:10 note) that accrues to man, is the pleasure felt Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 in receiving God’s gifts, and in working with and for them.
Ecclesiastes 2:12
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 Ecclesiastes 1:16, and compare Ecclesiastes 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.
Ecclesiastes 2:14
Event - Or, “hap” Ruth 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 Ecclesiastes 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.
Ecclesiastes 2:16
Seeing that ... - Compare Ecclesiastes 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.”
Ecclesiastes 2:17
I hated life - Compare this expression, extorted from Solomon by the perception of the vanity of his wisdom and greatness, with Romans 8:22-23. The words of Moses Numbers 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 Luke 14:26.
Ecclesiastes 2:19
Labour - Compare Ecclesiastes 2:4-8.
Ecclesiastes 2:20
I went about - i. e., I turned from one course of action to another.
Ecclesiastes 2:23
Are sorrows ... grief - Rather, sorrows and grief are his toil. See Ecclesiastes 1:13.
Ecclesiastes 2:24
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.
Ecclesiastes 2:26
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 Ecclesiastes 3:15, Ecclesiastes 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 Ecclesiastes 9:11) efficacious for the purpose for which they appear to be given.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. I went about to cause my heart to despair — What makes all worse, there is no remedy. It is impossible in the present state of things to prevent these evils.
