Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 6:2
A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.
Verse 2. A man to whom God hath given riches] A man may possess much earthly goods, and yet enjoy nothing of them. Possession and fruition are not necessarily joined together; and this is also among the vanities of life. It is worthy of remark, that it belongs to God as much to give the power to enjoy as it does to give the earthly blessings. A wise heathen saw this: –
Di tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi.
HOR. Ep. lib. i., ep. 4, ver. 7.
“The gods had given thee riches, and the art
to enjoy them.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wealth; all sorts of riches, as gold and silver, cattle and lands, &c.
Of all that he desireth; which he doth or can reasonably desire.
Giveth him not power to eat; either because they are suddenly taken away from him by the hand and curse of God, and given to others; or because God gives him up to a base and covetous mind, which is both a sin and a place. Thereof, i.e. any considerable part of it; whereas the stranger eateth not thereof, but it, i.e. all of it; devoureth it all in an instant.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. for his soulthat is, hisenjoyment.
God giveth him not power toeatThis distinguishes him from the “rich” man in Ec5:19. “God hath given” distinguishes him also from theman who got his wealth by “oppression” (Ecc 5:8;Ecc 5:10).
strangerthose notakin, nay, even hostile to him (Jer 51:51;Lam 5:2; Hos 7:9).He seems to have it in his “power” to do as he will withhis wealth, but an unseen power gives him up to his own avarice: Godwills that he should toil for “a stranger” (Ec2:26), who has found favor in God’s sight.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour,…. By “riches” may be meant gold and silver, things which a covetous man is never satisfied with; and by “wealth”, cattle, with which farms and fields are stocked: the wealth of men, especially in former times, and in the eastern countries, lay very much in these, as did the wealth of Abraham and Job, Ge 13:2; and all these, as they are reckoned glorious and honourable in themselves; so they create honour and glory among men, and raise to high and honourable places; and these, as they go, they are usually put together, and are called by the name of honour and glory itself; see Pr 3:16. And they are all the gifts of God, which he either as blessings bestows upon men, or suffers men to attain unto, though a curse may go along with them; which is the case here, for no man whatever is possessed of them but by the will of God or his divine permission; see 1Ch 29:12; and which a man may, and sometimes has, such a plentiful portion of;
so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth: he has not only for the supply of his wants, what is necessary for his daily use and service, but even what is for delight and pleasure; yea, as much as he could reasonably wish for; nay, more than heart could wish,
Ps 73:7;
yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof; the Targum adds, “because of his sin”; either he takes it away from him, he making no use of it; or his appetite is taken away, that he has no desire to it; or rather he has no heart to enjoy what he has, and scarce any part of it; not to eat and drink, and wear suitably to his circumstances, but grudges whatever he lays out on his back or belly, or in housekeeping in his family; for though God gives him a large substance, yet not a heart to make use of it, without which he cannot enjoy it; and therefore it would have been as good, or better for him, to have been without it; see Ec 5:19;
but a stranger eateth it; the Syriac version adds, “after him”; enjoys it, not only a part of it, but the whole; one that is not akin to him, and perhaps was never known by him; and yet, by one means or another, either in a lawful or unlawful way, comes into the possession of all he has; this has been always reckoned a great unhappiness, La 5:2. Hence it follows,
this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease; it is a vain thing to be possessed of great substance, and not enjoy anything of it in a comfortable way, through the sin of covetousness; which is a spiritual disease, and a very bad one; very prejudicial to the soul, and the state of it, and is rarely cured. Juvenal w calls it frenzy and madness for a man to live poor, that be may die rich; he is like the ass that Crassus Agelastus saw, loaded with figs, and eating thorns.
w “Cum furor dubius”, &c. Satyr. 14. v. 136. exposed by Persius, Sat. 6. v. 69, &c. “unge puer caules”, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To , as at 2Ch 1:11, and honour is added as a third thing. What follows we do not translate: “and there is nothing wanting … ;” for that with the pleonastic suff. may mean: “there is not,” is not to be proved from Gen 39:9, thus: and he spares not for his soul (lxx . . ) what he always desires. is adj. in the sense of wanting, lacking, as at 1Sa 21:1-15:16; 1Ki 11:22; Pro 12:9. , “for his soul,” i.e., his person, is = the synon. found in the later usage of the language; (different from the min, Ecc 4:8) is, as at Gen 6:2, partitive. The , to whom this considerable estate, satisfying every wish, finally comes, is certainly not the legal heir (for that he enters into possession, in spite of the uncertainty of his moral character, Ecc 2:19, would be in itself nothing less than a misfortune, yet perfectly in order, Ecc 5:13 [14]), but some stranger without any just claim, not directly a foreigner (Heiligst.), but, as Burger explains: talis qui proprie nullum habet jus in bona ejus cui dicitur (cf. of the unmarried wife in the Book of Proverbs).
That wealth without enjoyment is nothing but vanity and an evil disease, the author now shows by introducing another historical figure, and thereby showing that life without enjoyment is worse than never to have come into existence at all:
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(2) Riches, wealth, and honour.The three words are used together regarding Solomon (2Ch. 1:11).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. A man to whom God hath given riches Grammar requires us to supply the word, Behold, or, There is, before “a man.”
Honour This word, seeing it follows the sense of to eat, might better be given as in some other passages, abundance. The case is not rare of one successful in making great accumulations, who still, from some dyspeptic weakness of body, or some morbid penurious narrowness of mind, cannot bless his soul by indulgence in his copious stores. All his wealth goes to strangers. The preceding chapter gave us the case of a man who had a son and nothing to give him this is of one who has riches, but no son and heir. Eastern men, as may be seen in the instance of Abraham, felt it a deep calamity that their estates should go to
“An unlineal hand,
No son of [theirs] succeeding.”
Abraham was sad at having no son, though his heir would be his tried and good servant Eliezer. A nice point is made by the terms, (referring to the master,) to eat thereof, that is, using care and prudence, so as to amass, while the stranger eateth it, that is, recklessly uses it up.
Evil disease is not a bad rendering an “evil” utterly out of harmony with nature.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 6:2. A man to whom God hath given, &c. From the 18th verse of the foregoing chapter to the present, we have the 2nd proof of the 2nd proposition, which is taken from the insufficiency of riches to give a man any real satisfaction, even though the actual possession of them should never be taken from him. It was observed before, (ch. Ecc 3:12-13; Ecc 3:22.) that the only advantage to be had from earthly acquisitions is present enjoyment. But it was remarked likewise, that this is the gift of God, and is not in any man’s power, except it be given him from above. Now Solomon adds a further observation, which had been already hinted at, chap. Ecc 2:24 but not fully explained; viz. that possession and fruition are so far from being necessarily linked together, that the Supreme Dispenser of all things, as experience testifies, often grants the one without granting the other. And what is the use of riches to one who starves in the midst of plenty, but to torment him?
Thus he might have been happier and less uneasy without riches, than he is with them; chap. Ecc 5:18-20. This observation, however, is set in a very strong light, by the opposition of the case of another man, to whom God Almighty granted both wealth and enjoyment. This man, indeed, has no cause to complain, or to reckon his days as if they were burdensome to him; but as he is indebted to God’s liberality, and not to his own labour and industry, for the ease and happiness that he enjoys, his case is no objection to the general observation laid down in the present proposition. That observation, on the other hand, is strongly confirmed by the instance of the unhappy rich man; viz. that every thing in this world, when considered in itself, is vain, and rather fit to torment men’s minds, than to give them any real satisfaction, chap. Ecc 6:1-2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Ecc 6:2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.
Ver. 2. So that he wanteth nothing. ] Nothing but everything, because he dare not make use of anything almost, but is tantalised by his own baseness. He famisheth at a full feast, he starveth at a fireside. And this is often repeated in this book, because it can never enough be observed and abhorred.
Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof,
But a stranger eats it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God. Hebrew. Elohim.(with Art.) = the [true] God, or the Deity. App-4. See note on Ecc 1:13.
wealth. See note on Ecc 5:19.
his soul = himself. Hebrew. nephesh.
vanity. See note on Ecc 1:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a man: Ecc 5:19, 1Ki 3:13, 1Ch 29:25, 1Ch 29:28, 2Ch 1:11, Dan 5:18
so: Ecc 2:4-10, Deu 8:7-10, Jdg 18:10, Job 21:9-15, Psa 17:14, Psa 73:7, Luk 12:19, Luk 12:20
yet: A man may possess much earthly goods, and yet have neither the heart nor power to enjoy them. Possession and fruition are not necessarily joined together; and this is also among the vanities of life, and was and still is a very “common evil among men.” It belongs to God as much to give the power to enjoy, as it does to give earthly blessings.
but: Deu 28:33, Deu 28:43, Psa 39:6, Lam 5:2, Hos 7:9
vanity: Ecc 4:4, Ecc 4:8, Ecc 5:16
Reciprocal: Job 21:25 – never Ecc 2:24 – that it Ecc 3:13 – General Ecc 5:13 – a sore Ecc 6:9 – this Zec 9:6 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacketh nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet {a} God giveth him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.
(a) He shows that it is the plague of God when the rich man does not have a liberal heart to use his riches.