Ecclesiastes 2:23

23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

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Ecclesiastes 2:23 in Other Translations

KJV

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

ESV

23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

NLT

23 Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.

MSG

23 Pain and grief from dawn to dusk. Never a decent night's rest. Nothing but smoke.

CSB

23 For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Ecclesiastes 2:23 In-Context

21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?

23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,

25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?