Context No. 3763 of 4322 · Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 2:17-26: in context

17So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. 18I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. 19Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun. 21For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22For what does a man have of all his labor and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun? 23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. 24There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God. 25For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? 26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Qoheleth wrestles with a bitter thought: he has labored with wisdom and skill, and yet he must leave everything to someone who comes after him, who may be a fool and did nothing to earn it. This realization drives him to despair over all his toil under the sun. If we cannot keep what we build, and cannot control who inherits it, what is the point of all our striving?

But the passage does not end in despair. It turns to a quieter wisdom: there is nothing better than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in one's work, and even this, he sees, is from the hand of God. The ability to enjoy our labor and its fruits is itself a gift God gives. And to the one who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy. Two things meet here. The vanity of a life spent grasping to secure and control what we cannot keep. And the gift of receiving our daily work and its ordinary joys from God's hand, with gratitude, rather than trying to wring lasting meaning from toil alone.

Am I striving anxiously to secure and control what I cannot finally keep, or am I receiving my work and its ordinary joys as gifts from God's hand, with gratitude?

Sources

Ecclesiastes 2:24: "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God."
Ecclesiastes 2:18: "I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me."
Ecclesiastes 2:26: "For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy."