传道书 2:18

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

勞碌一生都是虛空我恨惡我的一切勞碌，就是我在日光之下的勞碌，因為我不得不把勞碌的成果留給後人。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
我 恨 恶 一 切 的 劳 碌 ， 就 是 我 在 日 光 之 下 的 劳 碌 ， 因 为 我 得 来 的 必 留 给 我 以 後 的 人 。

Contextual Overview

¹⁷ So I hated life. It made me sad to think that everything here on earth is useless, like chasing the wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had worked for here on earth, because I must leave them to someone who will live after me. ¹⁹ Someone else will control everything for which I worked so hard here on earth, and I don't know if he will be wise or foolish. This is also useless. ²⁰ So I became sad about all the hard work I had done here on earth. ²¹ People can work hard using all their wisdom, knowledge, and skill, but they will die, and other people will get the things for which they worked. They did not do the work, but they will get everything. This is also unfair and useless. ²² What do people get for all their work and struggling here on earth? ²³ All of their lives their work is full of pain and sorrow, and even at night their minds don't rest. This is also useless. ²⁴ The best that people can do is eat, drink, and enjoy their work. I saw that even this comes from God, ²⁵ because no one can eat or enjoy life without him. ²⁶ If people please God, God will give them wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But sinners will get only the work of gathering and storing wealth that they will have to give to the ones who please God. So all their work is useless, like chasing the wind.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I hated: Ecclesiastes 2:4-9, Ecclesiastes 1:13, Ecclesiastes 4:3, Ecclesiastes 5:18, Ecclesiastes 9:9

taken: Heb. laboured

I should: Ecclesiastes 2:26, Ecclesiastes 5:13, Ecclesiastes 5:14, 1 Kings 11:11-13, Psalms 17:14, Psalms 39:6, Psalms 49:10, Luke 12:20, Luke 16:27, Luke 16:28, Acts 20:29, Acts 20:30, 1 Corinthians 3:10

Reciprocal: Exodus 1:8 - a new king 1 Kings 14:26 - the shields of gold 2 Chronicles 6:10 - I am risen Esther 8:1 - give the house Esther 8:2 - Esther set Job 14:21 - he knoweth it not Job 20:22 - the fulness Job 21:21 - For what Proverbs 15:16 - great Proverbs 17:25 - General Proverbs 19:13 - foolish Proverbs 27:11 - be wise Ecclesiastes 2:21 - whose Ecclesiastes 5:10 - this Ecclesiastes 9:6 - have they Daniel 11:4 - and shall be Zechariah 9:6 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 1:31
God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. Evening passed, and morning came. This was the sixth day.

Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed a man from it. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nose, and the man became a living person.

Genesis 2:9
The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life and also the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:11
The first river, named Pishon, flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Genesis 2:12
The gold of that land is excellent. Bdellium and onyx are also found there.

Genesis 2:13
The second river, named Gihon, flows around the whole land of Cush.

Genesis 3:12
The man said, "You gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it."

Ruth 3:1
Then Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, said to her, "My daughter, I must find a suitable home for you, one that will be good for you.

Proverbs 18:22
When a man finds a wife, he finds something good. It shows that the Lord is pleased with him.

1 Corinthians 7:36
If a man thinks he is not doing the right thing with the girl he is engaged to, if she is almost past the best age to marry and he feels he should marry her, he should do what he wants. They should get married. It is no sin.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun,.... The great works he made, the houses he built; the vineyards, gardens, and orchards he planted, c. what he got by his labour, his riches and wealth and what he also got, not by the labour of his hands, but of his mind. Some understand this of the books he wrote; which were a weariness to his body, and fatigue to his mind; and which he might fear some persons would make an ill use of: Aben Ezra interprets it of his labour in this book. All which he had no great regard unto, since it was to be left to another;

because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me; because he could not enjoy the fruits of his labour himself, at least but a very short time: but must be obliged to leave all to another, his possessions, estates, riches, and treasure; which a man cannot carry with him when he dies, but must leave all behind him, to his heirs and successors x. The Targum is,

"because I shall leave it to Rehoboam my son, who shall come after me; and Jeroboam his servant shall come and take ten tribes out of his hands, and possess half the kingdom.''

x "Rape, congere, aufer, posside, relinquendum est." Martial. Epigr. l. 8. Ep. 43.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see Ecclesiastes 2:10 note) that accrues to man, is the pleasure felt Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 in receiving God’s gifts, and in working with and for them.

Ecclesiastes 2:12

What can the man do ... - i. e., “What is any man - in this study of wisdom and folly - after one like me, who, from my position, have had such special advantages (see Ecclesiastes 1:16, and compare Ecclesiastes 2:25) for carrying it on? That which man did of old he can but do again: he is not likely to add to the result of my researches, nor even to equal them.” Some hold that the “man” is a reference to Solomon’s successor - not in his inquiries, but in his kingdom, i. e., Jeroboam.

Ecclesiastes 2:14

Event - Or, “hap” Ruth 2:3. The verb from which it is derived seems in this book to refer especially to death. The word does not mean chance (compare Ecclesiastes 9:1-2), independent of the ordering of Divine Providence: the Gentile notion of “mere chance,” or “blind fate,” is never once contemplated by the writer of this book, and it would be inconsistent with his tenets of the unlimited power and activity of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:16

Seeing that ... - Compare Ecclesiastes 1:11. Some render, “as in time past, so in days to come, all will be forgotten;” others, “because in the days to come all will have been long before forgotten.”

Ecclesiastes 2:17

I hated life - Compare this expression, extorted from Solomon by the perception of the vanity of his wisdom and greatness, with Romans 8:22-23. The words of Moses Numbers 11:15, and of Job Job 3:21; Job 6:9, are scarcely less forcible. With some people, this feeling is a powerful motive to conversion Luke 14:26.

Ecclesiastes 2:19

Labour - Compare Ecclesiastes 2:4-8.

Ecclesiastes 2:20

I went about - i. e., I turned from one course of action to another.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

Are sorrows ... grief - Rather, sorrows and grief are his toil. See Ecclesiastes 1:13.

Ecclesiastes 2:24

Nothing better for a man, than that ... - literally, no good in man that etc. The one joy of working or receiving, which, though it be transitory, a man recognizes as a real good, even that is not in the power of man to secure for himself: that good is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

The doctrine of retribution, or, the revealed fact that God is the moral Governor of the world, is here stated for the first time (compare Ecclesiastes 3:15, Ecclesiastes 3:17 ff) in this book.

This also is vanity - Not only the travail of the sinner. Even the best gifts of God, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, so far as they are given in this life, are not permanent, and are not always (see Ecclesiastes 9:11) efficacious for the purpose for which they appear to be given.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. I hated all my labour — Because,

1. It has not answered the end for which it was instituted.

2. I can enjoy the fruits of it but a short time.

3. I must leave it to others, and know not whether a wise man, a knave, or a fool will possess it.