Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 2:23

For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

23. yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night ] The verse speaks out the experience of the men who labour for that which does not profit. There is no real pleasure, even at the time. The “cares of this world” come together with “the pleasures of this life” (Luk 8:14). We trace the same yearning after the “sweet sleep” that lies in the far-off past as in ch. Ecc 5:12, perhaps also in the “almond tree” of ch. Ecc 12:5. So has the great master-poet portrayed the wakefulness of successful ambition, the yearning for the sleep of the “smoky crib,” or even of the ship-boy on the mast, the terrible conclusion,

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

Shakespeare, Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. 1.

No “poppies” or “mandragora” can restore that sleep to the slave of mammon or the worn out sensualist.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 23. His days are sorrows] What a picture of human life where the heart is not filled with the peace and love of God! All his days are sorrows; all his labours griefs; all his nights restless; for he has no portion but merely what earth can give; and that is embittered by the labour of acquisition, and the disappointment in the using.

This is also vanity.] Emptiness of good and substantial misery.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

For all his days are sorrows; or, though all his days were sorrows, i.e. full of sorrows. For this seems added to aggravate the evil mentioned in the foregoing verse. Though he took great and unwearied pains all his days, yet after death he hath no more benefit by it than another man hath.

His travail grief; the toils of his body are, or were, accompanied with the vexations of his mind.

Taketh not rest in the night; either because his mind is distracted, or his sleep broken, with perplexing cares and fears.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

23. The only fruit he has is,not only sorrows in his days, but all his days aresorrows, and his travail (not only has griefs connected withit, but is itself), grief.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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, Ge 47:9;

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.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(23) The fact that the wise man must surrender his acquisitions exhibits the inutility of the painful toil by which he has gained them.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

23. His days sorrows Better, All his days his business is anxious and vexing: and often fails, both in its prosecution and results, to yield the satisfaction and comfort he had expected. Surely, this is also vanity.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ecc 2:23. And his travail, grief And grief his employment. The second observation (the subject of which is riches, and which begins at the 18th verse), and the conclusion which flows from it, are so blended together that they cannot be easily disjoined. When a man dies, which, as was said before, must be the case of the wise as well as of the ignorant, the fruits of all his labour and industry fall into the hands of his heir, whether that heir inherit his predecessor’s abilities or not. Thus, he who had no share in the trouble, labour, and solicitude, wherein you spent your days, and from which you seldom were free, not even in the time which is devoted to rest, comes to the enjoyment of what cost you so much; Ecc 2:18-19. Therefore, as far as you are personally concerned in it, your labour is lost, and your occupations are vain. Is it not then highly reasonable to hate both the occupations of men in this world, and that which they can get by it, or rather, (to soften the harshness of the Hebrew phrase by reducing it to its true meaning,) not to place our affections in this world, and to set very little value on it and its contents. Ecc 2:20-23.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Ecc 2:23 For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

Ver. 23. For all his days are sorrows, &c. ] All the days of the afflicted are evil, Pro 15:15 and every day hath a sufficient evil laid upon it by God. Mat 6:34 “Few and evil” were the days of Jacob’s pilgrimage. Gen 47:9 God gave him not a draught only of the cup of affliction, but made him a diet drink. “Man is born to trouble,” saith Eliphaz, Job 5:7 “as the sparks fly upward.” Man and miserable are in a manner terms convertible. He that remembers that himself is a man, will not think much of any sorrow betides him, saith the heathen orator. a For,

“ Si nisi res cuius nulla est contraria votis

Vivere nemo potest, vivere nemo potest. ”

Yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night. ] As a clock can never stand still so long as the plummets hang thereat, so neither can a worldling’s heart for cares and anxieties. These gnats will not suffer him to sleep; these flies of Egypt are continually stinging him, Nocte ac die non dabunt requiem, as those tyrants. Jer 16:13 Night and day he is disquieted with them; he lies upon a pillow stuffed with thorns. Not so the godly man; he contracts his cares into a narrow compass, communes with his own heart upon his bed, and having made all even with God, sleeps undisturbed. Psa 3:5 ; Psa 4:8 Jacob rests sweetly when his head lay upon a hard stone at Bethel. Ahasuerus cannot rest, though upon a bed of down, but calls for the chronicles. It was wisely done of Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, to put off his cares together with his clothes; when he laid by his gown he would commonly say, Lie there Lord Treasurer, and so quietly compose himself to take his sleep. b “In nothing be careful,” saith the apostle, “but let the peace of God guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Php 4:6-7

a O , &c. – Isocr.

b Camden.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

travail = toil that brings about fatigue. The same word as in Ecc 1:13; Ecc 2:26; Ecc 3:10; Ecc 4:8; Ecc 5:14. Not the same word as in Ecc 4:4, Ecc 4:6. Occurs only in Ecclesiastes.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

all: Gen 47:9, Job 5:7, Job 14:1, Psa 90:7-10, Psa 90:15, Psa 127:2

his heart: Ecc 5:12, Est 6:1, Job 7:13, Job 7:14, Psa 6:6, Psa 6:7, Psa 32:4, Psa 77:2-4, Dan 6:18, Act 14:22

Reciprocal: Gen 3:17 – in sorrow Ecc 1:2 – General Ecc 3:9 – General Ecc 4:8 – it is Ecc 5:16 – a sore Ecc 6:9 – this Ecc 7:15 – have I Ecc 8:16 – there is that Mat 11:28 – all

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge