Ecclesiastes 2:23

23 All his days be full of sorrows and mischiefs, and by night he resteth not in soul; and whether this is not vanity? (All his days be full of sorrows and mischiefs, and at night his soul resteth not; and is not this all empty and futile?)

Ecclesiastes 2:23 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 2:23

For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief
All his days are full of sorrows, of a variety of them; and all his affairs and transactions of life are attended with grief and trouble; not only the days of old age are evil ones, in which he can take no pleasure; or those times which exceed the common age of man, when he is got to fourscore years or more, and when his strength is labour and sorrow; but even all his days, be they fewer or more, from his youth upward, are all evil and full of trouble, ( Genesis 47:9 ) ( Job 14:1 ) ; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night;
which is appointed for rest and ease; and when laid down on his bed for it, as the word signifies; yet, either through an eager desire of getting wealth, or through anxious and distressing cares for the keeping it when gotten, he cannot sleep quietly and comfortably, his carking cares and anxious thoughts keep him waking; or, if he sleeps, his mind is distressed with dreams and frightful apprehensions of things, so that his sleep is not sweet and refreshing to him. This is also vanity;
or one of the vanities which belong to human life.

Ecclesiastes 2:23 In-Context

21 For why when another man travaileth in wisdom, and teaching, and busyness, he leaveth things gotten to an idle man; and therefore this is vanity, and great evil. (For though a person laboureth over something with wisdom, and knowledge, and diligence, he must leave all that he hath gotten to someone else, who did not labour over it; and so this is empty and futile, and a great evil.)

22 For why what shall it profit to a man of all his travail, and torment of spirit, with which he was tormented under [the] sun? (For what shall it profit a person for all his labour, and trials and tribulations, with which he was tormented under the sun?)

23 All his days be full of sorrows and mischiefs, and by night he resteth not in soul; and whether this is not vanity? (All his days be full of sorrows and mischiefs, and at night his soul resteth not; and is not this all empty and futile?)

24 Whether it is not better to eat and drink, and to show to his soul [the] goods of his travails? and this thing is of the hand of God. (Is it not better for a person to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good things from all his labour? and this is also from the hand of God.)

25 Who shall devour so, and shall flow in (such) delights, as I have? (Who shall ever devour such food, and shall flow in, or shall enjoy, such delights, as I have?)