Ecclesiastes 2:23

23 All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?

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 when a man laboureth in wisdom, and knowledge, and carefulness, he leaveth what he hath gotten to an idle man: so this also is vanity, and a great evil.
22 For what profit shall a man have of all his labour, and vexation of spirit, with which he hath been tormented under the sun?
23 All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?
24 Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.
25 Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?
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