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Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Ecclesiastes 2

Ecclesiastes 2:3

SOUGHT. — The word translated “search out” (Ecclesiastes 1:13). “Draw,” margin. There is no Biblical parallel for the use of the word in this sense. The general meaning is plain. ACQUAINTING. — Rather, _guiding._ The word is used of the driver of an animal or the shepherd of a flock (2 Samuel 6:3;... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:5

ORCHARDS. — Rather, _parks._ The word, which occurs also in Song of Solomon 4:3; Nehemiah 2:8, is originally Persian, and passed into the Greek and into modern languages in the form of “paradise” (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; and in LXX., Genesis 2:10; Genesis 13:10; Numbers 24:6; Isaia [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:6

POOLS. — In a place south of Bethlehem are still pointed out three gigantic reservoirs, known as the Pools of Solomon (Stanley’s _Jewish Church,_ 2:197). The place is probably the same as that called Etham by Josephus in his description of Solomon’s luxury (_Ant. viii._ 7. 3). Josephus speaks of ano... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:7

GOT ME. — The servants acquired by purchase are distinguished from those born in the house. (Concerning the number of Solomon’s servants, see 1 Kings 4:27; 1 Kings 10:5; and of his cattle, 1 Kings 4:23; 1 Kings 8:63.)... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:8

PECULIAR TREASURE. — The word is used of the Jewish people (Exodus 19:9; Psalms 135:4; Malachi 3:17; but generally 1 Chronicles 29:3). That Solomon had tributary kings is stated (1 Kings 4:21; 2 Chronicles 9:24; Psalms 72:10; Ezra 4:20). The word used for “provinces” here and in... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:9-11

(9-11) Kohéleth carried out his plan of tempering his enjoyment with discretion, but while he took his fill of the pleasure that fell to his lot, he found in it no abiding profit. He goes on in the following paragraph to complain that the wisdom and other advantages he possessed in his search for ha... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:12

This verse presents some difficulties of translation which need not be discussed here. The Authorised Version gives the following very good sense: If the king has failed in his experiment, what likelihood is there that a private person should be more successful? Yet bearing in mind that in Ecclesias... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:13

Wisdom surely has an advantage over folly, yet how full of “vanity” is that advantage. Let the wise man have done his best, soon death comes; the wise man is forgotten, and all he has gained by his labour passes, without labour, into the hands of one who may be no inheritor of his wisdom. EXCELLETH... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:16

It might be urged on behalf of the Solomonic authorship that Solomon himself might imagine that in the days to come he and his wisdom would be forgotten, but that such a thought does not become a long subsequent writer who had been induced by Solomon’s reputation for wisdom to make him the hero of h... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:18

Eccles. 9:19. There seems to be no special reference to Rehoboam, but only the assertion of the general principle that the wisest of men must leave all that his labour has gained to be enjoyed by another who may be destitute of wisdom. The thought is not so much that it is a hardship for the wise ma... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:21

EQUITY. — Rather, _skill, success_ (Ecclesiastes 4:4; Ecclesiastes 5:7). The noun is peculiar to this book. The corresponding verb occurs in Ecclesiastes 10:10; Ecclesiastes 11:6; Esther 8:5.... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:24

NOTHING BETTER. — “Not good” is the sense of the Hebrew as it stands, for it will be observed that the word “than” is in italics. But as this word might easily have dropped out by a transcriber’s error, interpreters, taking in connection Ecclesiastes 3:12; Ecclesiastes 3:22; Ecclesiastes 5:18; Eccle... [ Continue Reading ]

Ecclesiastes 2:25

HASTEN. — Habakkuk 1:8. MORE THAN I. — There is a various rendering, which has the authority of the LXX., and which has every appearance of being right: “without Him.”... [ Continue Reading ]

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