Ecclesiastes 2:20

20 So I came to regret that I had worked so hard.

Ecclesiastes 2:20 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 2:20

Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair
Of ever finding happiness in anything here below. He "turned about" F25, as the word signifies dropped his severe studies of wisdom, and his eager pursuits of pleasure; and desisted from those toilsome works, in which he had employed himself; and went from one thing to another, and settled and stuck at nothing, on purpose to relax his mind, as the Syriac version renders it; to divest it of all anxious thought and care, and call it off from its vain and fruitless undertakings; and be no more concerned about or thoughtful of all the labour which I took under the sun;
and what will be the consequence and issue of it; but quietly leave all to an all wise disposing Providence; and not seek for happiness in anything under the sun, but in those things that are above it; not in this world, but in the world to come.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 (ytwbow) "versus sum", Montanus; "et ego verti me", Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus.

Ecclesiastes 2:20 In-Context

18 Nothing that I had worked for and earned meant a thing to me, because I knew that I would have to leave it to my successor,
19 and he might be wise, or he might be foolish - who knows? Yet he will own everything I have worked for, everything my wisdom has earned for me in this world. It is all useless.
20 So I came to regret that I had worked so hard.
21 You work for something with all your wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then you have to leave it all to someone who hasn't had to work for it. It is useless, and it isn't right!
22 You work and worry your way through life, and what do you have to show for it?
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.