Pengkhotbah 2:20

Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari

Dengan demikian aku mulai putus asa terhadap segala usaha yang kulakukan dengan jerih payah di bawah matahari.

Parallel Translations

Alkitab Terjemahan Baru
Dengan demikian aku mulai putus asa terhadap segala usaha yang kulakukan dengan jerih payah di bawah matahari.

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

Genesis 43:14, Job 17:11-15, Psalms 39:6, Psalms 39:7, 1 Corinthians 15:19, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 1 Thessalonians 3:4

Reciprocal: Psalms 127:2 - vain Ecclesiastes 3:19 - for Ecclesiastes 7:25 - I applied mine heart

Cross-References

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.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair,.... Of ever finding happiness in anything here below. He "turned about" y, 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.

y וסבותי "versus sum", Montanus; "et ego verti me", Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus.

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 20. I went about to cause my heart to despair — What makes all worse, there is no remedy. It is impossible in the present state of things to prevent these evils.