He tries pleasure
2
📚I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; so enjoy pleasant things; and, look, this also was emptiness.2 📚I said of laughter, “It is madness!”, and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”
He tries wine
3 📚I sought in my heart to give myself to wine, while my heart was still guiding me with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly, until I could see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their life.
He undertakes great projects
4 📚I undertook great works. I built houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself.
2:4 Some of Solomon’s great projects are recorded in 1 Kings chapters 6–10.⚜
5 📚I made gardens and orchards for myself, and in them I planted trees bearing all kinds of fruit.
6 📚I made pools of water for myself, with which to water a forest of growing trees.
He amasses possessions and riches
7 📚I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves born in my house. I also had great possessions of large and small cattle, more than all who were in Jerusalem before me.
He tries music, etc
8 📚I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I obtained male and female singers for myself and things delightful to the sons of men, musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
9 📚So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.
2:9 These words could have been spoken truly only by King Solomon (1 Kings 10:7, 23; 1 Chron 29:25; 2 Chron 1:1, 12.)⚜
He tries anything he desires
10 📚And I did not refuse my eyes whatever they desired. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased in all my labour, and this was my reward for all my labour.
2:1-10 In his search for meaning in life Solomon turns to pleasures, even mad and foolish pleasures. He declares his purpose in v 3. He is tormented by the supreme question every man should ask. In our brief life on earth what should we be doing? Is there anything really worthwhile? Is there some good that men should pursue? Observe that he does not here go to the one place men should go for the answers to such questions – the Word of God. As the source of information he puts his own thoughts and experimentations. Notice Eccl 1:16; 2:15; 3:18 – “I said in my heart”.⚜
2:10 He was in a condition where he could have anything he wanted and he denied himself nothing. He indulged himself in every pleasure of the flesh, the senses, and the mind (compare this with the words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 9:23-24).⚜
His conclusion about all that
11 📚Then I looked at all the works that my hands had done, and at the labour that I had undertaken to do, and, see, all was emptiness and chasing the wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
2:11 Solomon experienced some satisfaction in his work for a little while, but when it was all over this was his conclusion – nothing was worth doing. He had not found the secret of a meaningful life. He found no joy in wealth and pleasure.⚜
He turns again to wisdom and folly
12 📚And I turned to look at wisdom, and madness, and folly; for what can the man do who succeeds the king? Only what has already been done.
13 📚Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as much as light excels darkness.
14 📚The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And I saw also that one event happens to them all.
His conclusion about this
15 📚Then I said in my heart, “It will happen to me just as it happens to the fool, and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart that this also is emptiness.
16 📚For there is no more permanent remembrance of the wise than of the fool, since what now is will be forgotten in days to come. And how does the wise man die? Like the fool.
Despair
17 📚Therefore I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun brings sadness to me; for all is emptiness and chasing the wind.
2:12-17 So he takes up again thoughts of wisdom and folly. For man’s brief stay on earth he concludes that wisdom is far superior to folly. But since all must die even this superiority comes at last to nothing. Since death destroys all these distinctions he thinks that life is meaningless.⚜
2:17 Life without meaning is painful, hateful, intolerable. Let us understand from this what God wants us to understand, namely, that without God, without heavenly purpose, without life eternal that comes through the Lord Jesus, life is empty and futile.⚜
18 📚Yes, I hated all the results of my labour which I had done under the sun, because I would leave it to the man who succeeds me.
19 📚And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have the control of all the results of my labour for which I have worked, and in which I have displayed my wisdom under the sun. This is also emptiness. 20 📚Therefore I utterly despaired in my heart of all the labour which I had done under the sun.
21 📚When there is a man who has laboured with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill, still he will leave his portion to a man who has not worked for it. This also is emptiness and a great wrong.
22 📚For what does a man have for all his labour, and for his hearty striving, with which he has laboured under the sun?
23 📚For all his days are painful and grievous; yes, his heart cannot rest at night. This is also emptiness.
2:18-23 Solomon sees that there is no permanent value in all the great works he has accomplished, in the vast possessions he has acquired. He knows that he must die and leave all of it behind (see also Ps 39:6; 49:10; Luke 12:20-21, 33; 1 Tim 6:6-10).⚜
The best thing this wise man could conclude
24 📚There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should find pleasure in his work. I also saw that this is from the hand of God.
25 📚For who can eat, or who else can hasten to it, more than I?
26 📚For to a man who is pleasing in his sight God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and collecting, so that he may give it to the one who is pleasing in God’s presence. This also is emptiness and chasing the wind.
2:24-26 Solomon thinks that all anyone can do is to make the best of a bad situation and try to find some little happiness in this brief life by submitting to God. Verse 25 is very obscure in Hebrew and so there is a variety of translations.⚜