Ecclesiastes 2:10

2:1-11 Solomon soon found mirth and pleasure to be vanity. What does noisy, flashy mirth towards making a man happy? The manifold devices of men's hearts, to get satisfaction from the world, and their changing from one thing to another, are like the restlessness of a man in a fever. Perceiving it was folly to give himself to wine, he next tried the costly amusements of princes. The poor, when they read such a description, are ready to feel discontent. But the remedy against all such feelings is in the estimate of it all by the owner himself. All was vanity and vexation of spirit: and the same things would yield the same result to us, as to Solomon. Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. His wisdom remained with him; a strong understanding, with great human knowledge. But every earthly pleasure, when unconnected with better blessings, leaves the mind as eager and unsatisfied as before. Happiness arises not from the situation in which we are placed. It is only through Jesus Christ that final blessedness can be attained.

And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them,.... Though this sense is only mentioned, all are designed; he denied himself of nothing that was agreeable to him, that was pleasing to the eye, to the ear, to the taste, or any other sense; he indulged himself in everything, observing a proper decorum, and keeping himself within the due bounds of sobriety and good sense; I withheld not my heart from any joy: the Targum says, "from all joy of the law"; but it is to be understood of natural pleasure, and of the gratifications of the senses in a wise and moderate manner; for my heart rejoiced in all my labours; he took all the pleasure that could be taken in the works he wrought for that purpose before enumerated; and this was my portion of all my labour; pleasure was what he aimed at, and that he enjoyed; this was the fruit and issue of all his laborious works; the part allotted him, the inheritance he possessed, and the thing he sought after.

And whatever my eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my {g} portion of all my labour. (g) This was the fruit of all my labour, a certain pleasure mixed with care, which he calls vanity in the next verse.

Portion - A word of frequent occurrence. By it Solomon describes the pleasure found in the act of working and also perhaps the pleasure felt in the process of acquiring wisdom; this pleasure is admitted to be good, if received from God ( Ecclesiastes 2:26 ; Ecclesiastes 5:18 ; compare 1 Timothy 4:4 ); but being transitory it is subject to vanity, and therefore does not afford a sufficient answer to the repeated question, "What profit etc.?" Ecclesiastes 1:3 .

Whatsoever mine eyes desired; whatsoever was grateful to my senses, or my heart desired. He ascribes desire to the eyes, because the sight of the eyes is the usual and powerful incentive of desires; of which see Joshua 7:21 Job 31:1 Matthew 5:28 . I kept not from them; I denied myself nothing, at least of lawful delights, but went to the very utmost bounds of them; which was the occasion of his falling afterward into sinful pleasures. I withheld not my heart from any joy; as my heart was vehemently set upon pleasure, so I did not resist or curb it therein, but made all possible provisions to gratify it. My heart rejoiced in all my labour; I had the comfort of all my labours, and was not hindered from the free and full enjoyment of them by sickness or war, or any other calamities occurrent. This was my portion of all my labour; this present and temporary enjoyment of them was all the benefit which I could expect or receive from all my labours, so that I made the best of them. I had a heart to use them, which many men through covetousness have not; and I tasted the sweetness of them, which many others cannot do; and therefore if any man could arrive at happiness by this means, I had done it.

CHAPTER 10 Ec 10:1-20. 1. Following up Ec 9:18. him that is in reputation—for example, David (2Sa 12:14); Solomon (1Ki 11:1-43); Jehoshaphat (2Ch 18:1-34; 19:2); Josiah (2Ch 35:22). The more delicate the perfume, the more easily spoiled is the ointment. Common oil is not so liable to injury. So the higher a man's religious character is, the more hurt is caused by a sinful folly in him. Bad savor is endurable in oil, but not in what professes to be, and is compounded by the perfumer ("apothecary") for, fragrance. "Flies" answer to "a little folly" (sin), appropriately, being small (1Co 5:6); also, "Beelzebub" means prince of flies. "Ointment" answers to "reputation" (Ec 7:1; Ge 34:30). The verbs are singular, the noun plural, implying that each of the flies causes the stinking savor.Observations on wisdom and folly, Ecclesiastes 10:1-3. Of rulers, Ecclesiastes 10:4-7. Of wrong and injustice, Ecclesiastes 10:8-10. Of talkativeness, imprudence, and its mischiefs, Ecclesiastes 10:11-15. Kings hurtful and desirable, Ecclesiastes 10:16,17. Of sloth, Ecclesiastes 10:18. Feasts, Ecclesiastes 10:19. The king must not be cursed, Ecclesiastes 10:20. Dead flies falling into it, and abiding and being putrefied in it, especially in those countries, where there were more filthy and venomous flies, and where the ointments were more pure, and where the air was more hot, than in these parts.

10 . whatsoever mine eyes desired ] From such a life the idea of self-denial, even of self-control, was absolutely excluded. Money and power were but means to the end, and the end proposed was the gratification of the “desire of the eyes,” not identified with the “lust of the flesh,” but closely allied to it ( 1 John 2:16 ), in all its restless cravings. It was not altogether a fruitless effort. Such joy as these things could bring he had in abundant measure. It was for a time his “portion.” Like the rich man in the parable of Luke 16:25 he had his “good things,” and could not complain that the experiment failed as through imperfect apparatus. He also was tasting of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil,” and found that it was “good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise” ( Genesis 3:6 ).

Verse 10. - Whatsoever mine eyes desired . The lust of the eyes ( 1 John 2:16 ), all that he saw and desired, he took measures to obtain. He denied himself no gratification, however foolish (ver. 3). For my heart rejoiced in all my labor ; i . e . found joy in what my labor procured for it (comp. Proverbs 5:18 ). This was the reason why he withheld not his heart from any joy ; kept it, as it were, ready to taste any pleasure which his exertions might obtain. This was my portion of all my labor . Such joy was that which he won from his labor, he had his reward, such as it was ( Matthew 6:2 ; Luke 16:25 ). This term "portion" ( cheleq ) recurs often ( e.g. , ver. 21; Ecclesiastes 3:22 ; Ecclesiastes 5:18 , etc.; so Wisd. 2:9) in the sense of the result obtained by labor or con-duet. And what a meagre and unsatisfying result it was which he gained! Contrast the apostle's teaching, "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vain-glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever" ( 1 John 2:16, 17 ). Ecclesiastes 2:10

Thus become great and also continuing wise, he was not only in a condition to procure for himself every enjoyment, but he also indulged himself in everything; all that his eyes desired, i.e., all that they saw, and after which they made him lust ( Deuteronomy 14:26 ) (cf. 1 John 2:16 ), that he did not refuse to them (אצל, subtrahere), and he kept not back his heart from any kind of joy (מנע, with min of the thing refused, as at Numbers 24:11 , etc., oftener with min, of him to whom it is refused, e.g., Genesis 30:2 ), for (here, after the foregoing negations, coinciding with immo) his heart had joy of all his work; and this, viz., this enjoyment in full measure, was his part of all his work. The palindromic form is like Ecclesiastes 1:6 ; Ecclesiastes 4:1 . We say in Heb. as well as in German: to have joy in (an, ב), anything, joy over (ber, על) anything, or joy of (von, מן) anything; Koheleth here purposely uses min, for he wishes to express not that the work itself was to him an object and reason of joy, but that it became to him a well of joy (cf. Proverbs 5:18 ; 2 Chronicles 20:27 ). Falsely, Hahn and others: after my work (min, as e.g., Psalm 73:20 ), for thereby the causative connection is obliterated: min is the expression of the mediate cause, as the concluding sentence says: Joy was that which he had of all his work - this itself brought care and toil to him; joy, made possible to him thereby, was the share which came to him from it.

(13) Gave my heart. —The phrase occurs again in this book ( Ecclesiastes 1:17 ; Ecclesiastes 7:25 ; Ecclesiastes 8:9 ; Ecclesiastes 8:16 ) and often elsewhere. (See Daniel 10:12 ; 2Chronicles 11:16 , &c) The heart among the Hebrews is regarded as the seat, not merely of the feelings, but of the intellectual faculties, and so the word is constantly used in what follows. “I gave my heart” is the same as “I applied my mind.” To seek.—Deuteronomy 13:14; Leviticus 10:16. Search out.—Numbers 14:36; Numbers 14:38; Ecclesiastes 7:25. Travail.—The word occurs again in this book (Ecclesiastes 2:23; Ecclesiastes 2:26; Ecclesiastes 3:10; Ecclesiastes 4:8; Ecclesiastes 5:3; Ecclesiastes 5:14; Ecclesiastes 8:16) but no-where else in the Old Testament, though kindred forms are common. The word itself is common in Rabbinical Hebrew, in the sense of business. “To afflict them” (margin). This is too strong a translation; better, to travail therein.