BOOK 21 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ecclesiastes 2

Ecclesiastes book home•Chapter 2 of 12•26 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ecclesiastes 2 Overview

The Preacher tests pleasure, possessions, great projects, wealth, wisdom, and work, but finds that death overtakes both wise and fool; still, the chapter begins to identify ordinary enjoyment as a gift from God.

EcclesiastesBook

2Chapter

26Verses

PoetryDivision

Before you read Ecclesiastes 2

Coming from

Chapter 1 introduced the problem: human work and wisdom cannot create permanent gain under the sun. Chapter 2 now puts the most attractive alternatives to an extended test.

In this chapter

Leads into

Chapter 3 broadens the discussion from individual achievement to God’s ordering of time, seasons, work, and human limitation.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter is an experiment in sufficiency, not a condemnation of every pleasure or possession. The Preacher had unusual opportunity to test wealth, projects, entertainment, and wisdom on a scale unavailable to most people.

The turning point is not that enjoyment is evil, but that enjoyment cannot be seized as ultimate meaning. Food, drink, and labor can be received as gifts “from the hand of God,” while none of them can defeat death.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Pleasure cannot bear ultimate weight

Entertainment, possessions, accomplishments, and sensual enjoyment do not create lasting profit.

Wisdom is better but not final

Wisdom has a real advantage over folly, yet both wise and fool die.

Enjoyment is received, not mastered

Ordinary satisfaction in work and daily provision is presented as a gift God gives rather than a permanent achievement humans manufacture.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

1 Kings 4:20-34; 10:14-29

Solomon’s wealth, wisdom, building activity, and royal abundance provide important background for the kind of experiment described here.

Luke 12:16-21

Jesus’ rich fool likewise discovers that accumulated goods cannot secure life when death arrives.

1 Timothy 6:17

Paul says God “giveth us richly all things to enjoy,” while warning against trusting uncertain riches.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not make pleasure itself the villain.

The chapter rejects pleasure as an ultimate answer, not every lawful joy God gives.

Do not flatten wisdom and folly into equality.

The Preacher says wisdom excels folly, but insists that wisdom still cannot prevent mortality.

Read Ecclesiastes 2 watching for…

the repeated testing language

the scale of the Preacher’s projects

the contrast between wisdom and folly

the shared destination of death

the first clear gift-of-God enjoyment statement

Chapter outline3 sections

1-11The Preacher tests pleasure, possessions, projects, riches, and greatness but finds them vanity 12-16Wisdom is better than folly, yet both the wise man and fool die and are forgotten 17-26Labor becomes grievous when its fruit passes to another; enjoying good in work is a gift from God

I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.

I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?

I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.

I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:

I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:

I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:

I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:

I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.

So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.

And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.

Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.

For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.

Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.

For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?

For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.