ä¼ é“ä¹¦ 2:2

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

對嬉笑，我說：“那是狂妄”；對享樂，我說：“這有甚麼作用呢？”

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
我 指 嬉 笑 说 ： 这 是 狂 妄 。 论 喜 乐 说 ： 有 何 功 效 呢 ？

Contextual Overview

¹ I said to myself, "I will try having fun. I will enjoy myself." But I found that this is also useless. ² It is foolish to laugh all the time, and having fun doesn't accomplish anything. ³ I decided to cheer myself up with wine while my mind was still thinking wisely. I wanted to find a way to enjoy myself and see what was good for people to do during their few days of life. ⁴ Then I did great things: I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. ⁵ I made gardens and parks, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶ I made pools of water for myself and used them to water my growing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and slaves were also born in my house. I had large herds and flocks, more than anyone in Jerusalem had ever had before. ⁸ I also gathered silver and gold for myself, treasures from kings and other areas. I had male and female singers and all the women a man could ever want. ⁹ I became very famous, even greater than anyone who had lived in Jerusalem before me. My wisdom helped me in all this. ¹⁰ Anything I saw and wanted, I got for myself; I did not miss any pleasure I desired. I was pleased with everything I did, and this pleasure was the reward for all my hard work.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I said: Solomon is not speaking here of sober enjoyment of the things of the world, but of intemperate pleasure, whose two attendants, laughter and mirth, are introduced by a beautiful prosopopoeia, as two persons, whom he treats with the utmost contempt.

It is: Ecclesiastes 7:2-6, Proverbs 14:13, Isaiah 22:12, Isaiah 22:13, Amos 6:3-6, 1 Peter 4:2-4

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 25:36 - merry Ecclesiastes 7:6 - as Ecclesiastes 10:19 - feast Matthew 13:45 - seeking Luke 6:25 - laugh James 4:9 - let

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 2:8
Then the Lord God planted a garden in the east, in a place called Eden, and put the man he had formed into it.

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

Exodus 23:12
"You should work six days a week, but on the seventh day you must rest. This lets your ox and your donkey rest, and it also lets the slave born in your house and the foreigner be refreshed.

Exodus 31:17
The Sabbath day will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, because in six days I, the Lord , made the sky and the earth. On the seventh day I did not work; I rested.'"

Deuteronomy 5:14
but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. That way your servants may rest as you do.

Isaiah 58:13
"You must obey God's law about the Sabbath and not do what pleases yourselves on that holy day. You should call the Sabbath a joyful day and honor it as the Lord 's holy day. You should honor it by not doing whatever you please nor saying whatever you please on that day.

John 5:17
But Jesus said to them, "My Father never stops working, and so I keep working, too."

Hebrews 4:4
In the Scriptures he talked about the seventh day of the week: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his works."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I said of laughter, [it is] mad,.... The risible faculty in man is given him for some usefulness; and when used in a moderate way, and kept within due bounds, is of service to him, and conduces to the health of his body, and the pleasure of his mind; but when used on every trivial occasion, and at every foolish thing that is said or done, and indulged to excess, it is mere madness, and makes a man look more like a madman and a fool than a wise man; it lasts but for a while, and the end of it is heaviness, Ecclesiastes 7:6. Or, "I said to laughter, [thou art] mad" x; and therefore will have nothing to do with thee in the excessive and criminal way, but shun thee, as one would do a mad man: this therefore is not to be reckoned into the pleasure he bid his soul go to and enjoy;

and of mirth, what doth it? what good does do? of what profit and advantage is it to man? If the question is concerning innocent mirth, the answer may be given out of Proverbs 15:13; but if of carnal sinful mirth, there is no good arises from that to the body or mind; or any kind of happiness to be enjoyed that way, and therefore no trial is to be made of it. What the wise man proposed to make trial of, and did, follows in the next verses.

x לשחוק אמרתי מהולל "risui dixi, insanis", Mercerus, Drusius, Amama; "vel insanus es", Piscator, Schmidt, Rambachius.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 2:2. I said of laughter, It is mad — Literally "To laughter I said, O mad one! and to mirth, What is this one doing?"

Solomon does not speak here of a sober enjoyment of the things of this world, but of intemperate pleasure, whose two attendants, laughter and mirth are introduced by a beautiful prosopopoeia as two persons; and the contemptuous manner wherewith he treats them has something remarkably striking. He tells the former to her face that she is mad; but as to the latter, he thinks her so much beneath his notice, that he only points at her, and instantly turns his back.