Ecclesiastes 2:9

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.

So I was great,.... Became famous for the great works wrought by him before mentioned; and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem; the Targum adds, "in riches"; but it seems rather to respect his fame and glory among men; though in general it may include his increase of wealth, power, and honour, and everything that contributed to his external happiness; also my wisdom remained with me; the Targum adds, "and it helped me"; which he exercised and showed in the government of his kingdom, in the conduct of his family, in his personal deportment and behaviour; amidst all his pleasures, he did not neglect the study of natural knowledge, nor give himself up to sordid and sinful lusts; and so was a better judge of pleasure, whether true happiness consisted in it or not.

Ecclesiastes 2:9-10 . So I was great — In riches, and power, and glory. My wisdom remained — As yet I was not wholly seduced from God. And whatsoever mine eyes desired — Whatsoever was grateful to my senses, or my heart desired; I kept not from them — I denied myself nothing, at least, of lawful delights, but went to the very bounds of them; which was the occasion of his falling afterward into sinful pleasures. I withheld not my heart, &c. — As my heart was vehemently set upon pleasure, so I did not resist, or curb it therein, but made all possible provision to gratify it. For my heart rejoiced — I had the comfort of all my labours, and was not hindered from the full enjoyment of them by sickness or war, or any other calamity. This was my portion — This present enjoyment of them was all the benefit which I could expect from all my labours. So that I made the best of them.

(9-11) Kohéleth carried out his plan of tempering his enjoyment with discretion, but while he took his fill of the pleasure that fell to his lot, he found in it no abiding profit. He goes on in the following paragraph to complain that the wisdom and other advantages he possessed in his search for happiness render his failure the more disheartening.

I was great, in riches, and power, and glory. Also my wisdom remained with me; as yet I was not wholly besotted and seduced from God by these things, as I was afterwards; I still had the use of my reason, whereby I was capable of searching after and finding satisfaction, if it was to be had in those things.

9 . I was great, and increased ] There is something significant in the repetition of the formula of ch. Ecclesiastes 1:16 . The king had surpassed all others in wisdom, he was now surpassing all others in magnificence. also my wisdom remained with me ] The thought expressed seems to be, as in Ecclesiastes 2:3 , that the seeker, though he plunged into the pleasures of a sensual life, was never altogether their slave. They were for him experiments which he watched as with an intellectual impartiality. Like Goethe, he analysed his voluptuousness, and studied his own faculties of enjoyment.

Verse 9. - So I was great (see on Ecclesiastes 1:16). This refers to the magnificence and extent of his possessions and luxury, as the former passage to the surpassing excellence of his wisdom. We may compare the mention of Abraham ( Genesis 26:13 ), "The man waxed great, and grew more and more until he became very great" ( sc . Job 1:3 ). Also my wisdom remained with me ; perseveravit mecum (Vulgate); ἐστάθη μοι (Septuagint). In accordance with the purpose mentioned in ver. 3, he retained command of himself, studying philosophically the effects and nature of the pleasures of which he partook, and keeping ever in view the object of his pursuit. Voluptuousness was not the end which he sought, but one of the means to obtain the end; and what he calls his wisdom is not pure Divine wisdom that comes from above, but an earthly prudence and self-restraint. Ecclesiastes 2:9

"And I became great, and was always greater than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And all that mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I refused not any kind of joy to my heart; for my heart had joy of all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. And I turned myself to all the works which my hands had done, and to the labour which I had laboured to accomplish: and, behold, all was vain, and windy effort, and there was no true profit under the sun." In vehosaphti there is here no obj. as at Ecclesiastes 1:16 ; the obj. is the gedullah, the greatness, to be concluded and thought of from vegadalti, "and I became great." To the impers. היה for היוּ, 7b, cf. 7a, Ecclesiastes 1:16 , Ecclesiastes 1:10 . He became great, and always greater, viz., in the possession of all the good things, the possession of which seemed to make a man happy on this earth.

And what he resolved upon, in the midst of this dulcis insania, viz., to deport himself as a wise man, he succeeded in doing: his wisdom forsook him not, viz., the means adapted to the end, and ruling over this colossal apparatus of sensual lust; אף, as e.g., at Psalm 16:6 , belongs to the whole clause; and עמד, with ל, does not mean here to stand by, sustain (Herzfeld, Ewald, Elster), which it might mean as well as על עמד, Daniel 12:1 , but to continue, as Jerome, and after him, Luther, translates: sapientia quoquo perseveravit mecum; the Targ. connects the ideas of continuance (lxx, Syr., Venet.) and of help; but the idea intended is that of continuance, for נהג, e.g., does not refer to helping, but self-maintaining.