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Sunday, July 6th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari

Pengkhotbah 2:17

This verse is not available in the BIS!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Death;   Industry;   Life;   Murmuring;   Wisdom;   Thompson Chain Reference - Hope-Despair;   Life;   Life-Death;   Weariness of Life;   The Topic Concordance - Vanity;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Life, Natural;  

Dictionaries:

- Holman Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Winter ;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for October 24;   Every Day Light - Devotion for September 29;  

Contextual Overview

17 Thus began I to be weery of my life, insomuch that I coulde away with nothyng that is done vnder the sunne: for all was but vanitie and vexation of mynde. 18 Yea I was weery of my labour which I had taken vnder the sunne, because I shoulde be fayne to leaue them vnto another man that commeth after me: 19 And who knoweth whether he shalbe a wise man or a foole? And yet shall he be lorde of all my laboures which I with such wisdome haue taken vnder the sunne: This is also a vayne thyng. 20 So I turned me to refrayne my mynde from all such trauayle as I toke vnder the sunne, 21 Forsomuch as a man shoulde weery hym selfe with wisdome, with vnderstandyng and oportunitie, and yet be fayne to leaue his labours vnto another that neuer sweat for them: This is also a vayne thyng, and great miserie. 22 For what getteth a man of all the labour and trauayle of his mynde that he taketh vnder the sunne? 23 But heauinesse, sorowe, and disquietnesse all the dayes of his life? Insomuch that his heart can not rest in the nyght: This is also a vayne thyng. 24 Is it not better then for a man to eate and drynke, and his soule to be mery in his labour? yea I sawe that this also was a gift of God. 25 For who wyll eate or go more lustyly to his worke then I? 26 And why? God geueth to the man that is good before hym, wisdome, vnderstandyng, and gladnesse: but vnto the sinner he geueth weerinesse, that he may gather and heape together the thyng that afterwarde shalbe geuen vnto hym whom it pleaseth God: This is nowe a vayne thyng, yea a very disquietnesse and vexation of mynde.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I hated: Numbers 11:15, 1 Kings 19:4, Job 3:20-22, Job 7:15, Job 7:16, Job 14:13, Jeremiah 20:14-18, Jonah 4:3, Jonah 4:8, Philippians 1:23-25

work: Ecclesiastes 1:14, Ecclesiastes 3:16, Ezekiel 3:14, Habakkuk 1:3

for: Ecclesiastes 2:11, Ecclesiastes 2:22, Ecclesiastes 6:9, Psalms 89:47

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:17 - cursed Psalms 39:6 - surely Ecclesiastes 1:2 - General Ecclesiastes 2:21 - whose Ecclesiastes 4:2 - General Ecclesiastes 4:3 - who Ecclesiastes 4:16 - this Ecclesiastes 5:10 - this Ecclesiastes 11:8 - All that Ecclesiastes 12:8 - General Luke 14:26 - hate John 12:25 - hateth

Cross-References

Genesis 2:1
The heauens also & the earth were finisshed, & all the hoast of them.
Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heauens and of the earth when they were created, in the day when the Lord God made the earth and the heauens.
Genesis 2:6
But there went vp a miste from the earth, & watered the whole face of the grounde.
Genesis 2:9
Moreouer, out of the grounde made the Lorde God to growe euery tree, that was fayre to syght, and pleasaunt to eate: The tree of lyfe in the myddest of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and euyll.
Genesis 2:10
And out of Eden there went foorth a flood to water the garden, and from thence it was deuided, and became into foure heades.
Genesis 2:12
And the golde of the lande is very good. There is also Bdellium, and the Onix stone.
Genesis 2:13
The name of the seconde riuer is Gyhon: the same is it that compasseth the whole lande of Ethiopia.
Genesis 2:18
And the Lord God sayde: It is not good yt the man should be alone, I wyll make hym an helpe lyke vnto hym.
Genesis 2:20
And the man gaue names to all cattell, and foule of the ayre, & euery beast of the fielde: but for man founde he not an helpe lyke vnto hym.
Genesis 2:21
The Lord God caused a deepe sleepe to fall vpon Adam, and he slept, and he toke one of his ribbes, and closed vp the place with fleshe in steade therof.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore I hated life,.... Not strictly and simply understood, since life is the gift of God; and a great blessing it is, more than raiment, and so dear to a man, that he will give all he has for it: but comparatively, in comparison of the lovingkindness of God, which is better than life; or in comparison of eternal life, which a good man desires to depart from this world, for the sake of enjoying it. The sense seems to be this, that since the case of wise men and fools was equal, he had the less love for life, the less regard to it, the less desire to continue in it; no solid happiness being to be enjoyed in anything under the sun: though some think that he was even weary of life, impatient of it, as Job, Jonah, and others have been. The Targum is,

"I hate all evil life:''

Alshech interprets it of the good things of this world, which were the cause of hurt unto him; and Aben Ezra understands, by life, living persons;

because the work that is wrought under the sun [is] grievous unto me; which was either wrought by himself; particularly his hard studies, and eager pursuits after knowledge and wisdom, which were a weariness to his flesh; or which were done by others, especially evil ones: so the Targum,

"for evil to me is an evil work, which is done by the children of men under the sun in this world;''

for all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit; :-.

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 17. Therefore I hated life — את החיים et hachaiyim, the lives, both of the wise, the madman, and the fool. Also all the stages of life, the child, the man, and the sage. There was nothing in it worth pursuing, no period worth re-living and no hope that if this were possible I could again be more successful.


 
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