the Second Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Read the Bible
Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari
Pengkhotbah 2:24
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayEncyclopedias:
- InternationalDevotionals:
- EveryParallel Translations
Tak ada yang lebih baik bagi manusia dari pada makan dan minum dan bersenang-senang dalam jerih payahnya. Aku menyadari bahwa inipun dari tangan Allah.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
nothing: Ecclesiastes 3:12, Ecclesiastes 3:13, Ecclesiastes 3:22, Ecclesiastes 5:18, Ecclesiastes 8:15, Ecclesiastes 9:7-9, Ecclesiastes 11:9, Ecclesiastes 11:10, Deuteronomy 12:12, Deuteronomy 12:18, Nehemiah 8:10, Acts 14:17, 1 Timothy 6:17
make his soul enjoy good: or, delight his senses
that it: Ecclesiastes 3:13, Ecclesiastes 5:19, Ecclesiastes 6:2, Malachi 2:2, Luke 12:19, Luke 12:20
Reciprocal: Genesis 48:15 - fed me Ruth 3:7 - his heart 1 Kings 4:20 - eating 1 Chronicles 29:22 - eat and drink Ecclesiastes 6:9 - Better Ecclesiastes 9:9 - for Jeremiah 22:15 - eat 1 Corinthians 7:31 - use 1 Corinthians 15:32 - let 1 Timothy 6:8 - General
Cross-References
The heauens also & the earth were finisshed, & all the hoast of them.
And in the seuenth day God ended his worke whiche he had made. And the seueth day he rested from all his worke which he had made.
And God blessed the seuenth daye, & sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his worke whiche God ordeyned to make.
These are the generations of the heauens and of the earth when they were created, in the day when the Lord God made the earth and the heauens.
But there went vp a miste from the earth, & watered the whole face of the grounde.
The Lorde God also dyd shape man, [euen] dust fro of the grounde, & breathed into his nosethrylles the breath of lyfe, and man was a lyuyng soule.
Moreouer, out of the grounde made the Lorde God to growe euery tree, that was fayre to syght, and pleasaunt to eate: The tree of lyfe in the myddest of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and euyll.
And out of Eden there went foorth a flood to water the garden, and from thence it was deuided, and became into foure heades.
The name of ye first is Pison, the same is it that compasseth the whole lande of Hauilah, where there is golde:
And the golde of the lande is very good. There is also Bdellium, and the Onix stone.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
[There is] nothing better for a man [than] that he should eat and drink,.... Not in an immoderate and voluptuous manner, like the epicure and the atheist, that disbelieve a future state and the resurrection of the dead, and give up themselves to all sinful and sensual gratifications; but in a moderate way, enjoying in a cheerful and comfortable manner the good creatures of God, which he has given; being contented with them, thankful for them, and looking upon them as the blessings of divine goodness, and as flowing from the love of God to him; and thus freely using, and yet not abusing them. Some render it, "it is not good for a man to eat" a, c. immoderately and to excess, and to place his happiness in it: or, "there is no good with man" b it is not in the power of man to use the creatures aright. Jarchi renders it by way of interrogation, "is it not good?" which comes to the same sense with ours, and so the Vulgate Latin version;
and [that] he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour; not leave off labouring; nor eat and drink what he has not laboured for, or what is the fruit of other men's labour; but what is the effect of his own, and in which he continues; and this is the way to go on in it with cheerfulness, when he enjoys the good, and reaps the benefit and advantage of it; which is certainly preferable to a laying up his substance, and leaving it to he knows not who.
This also I saw, that it [was] from the hand of God; not only the riches a man possesses, but the enjoyment of them, or a heart to make use of them; see Ecclesiastes 5:18. The Midrash interprets this eating and drinking, of the law and good works: and the Targum explains it, causing the soul to enjoy the good of doing the commandments, and walking in right ways; and observes, that a man that prospers in this world, it is from the hand of the Lord, and is what is decreed to be concerning him.
a אין טוב "non est igitur bonum", Vatablus. b "Non est bonum penes hominem", Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, Gussetius.
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 24. There is nothing better for a man — The sense of this passage is well expressed in the following lines: -
"For these disorders wouldst thou find a cure,
Such cure as human frailty would admit?
Drive from thee anxious cares; let reason curb
Thy passions; and with cheerful heart enjoy
That little which the world affords; for here,
Though vain the hopes of perfect happiness,
Yet still the road of life, rugged at best,
Is not without its comforts.---------
Wouldst thou their sweetness taste, look up to heaven,
And praise the all-bounteous Donor, who bestows
The power to use aright."