Reflections on Ecclesiastes 2

 Ecclesiastes 02 (Contemporary English Version)

1. I said to myself, "Have fun and enjoy yourself!" But this didn't make sense.
   
2. Laughing and having fun is crazy. What good does it do?
   
3. I wanted to find out what was best for us during the short time we have on this earth. So I decided to make myself happy with wine and find out what it means to be foolish, without really being foolish myself.
   
4. I did some great things. I built houses and planted vineyards.
   
5. I had flower gardens and orchards full of fruit trees.
   
6. And I had pools where I could get water for the trees.
   
7. I owned slaves, and their sons and daughters became my slaves. I had more sheep and goats than anyone who had ever lived in Jerusalem.
   
8. Foreign rulers brought me silver, gold, and precious treasures. Men and women sang for me, and I had many wives who gave me great pleasure.
   
9. I was the most famous person who had ever lived in Jerusalem, and I was very wise.
   
10. I got whatever I wanted and did whatever made me happy. But most of all, I enjoyed my work.
    
11. Then I thought about everything I had done, including the hard work, and it was simply chasing the wind. Nothing on earth is worth the trouble.
    
12. I asked myself, "What can the next king do that I haven't done?" Then I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and stupidity.
    
13. And I discovered that wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.
    
14. Wisdom is like having two good eyes; foolishness leaves you in the dark. But wise or foolish, we all end up the same.
    
15. Finally, I said to myself, "Being wise got me nowhere! The same thing will happen to me that happens to fools. Nothing makes sense.
    
16. Wise or foolish, we all die and are soon forgotten."
    
17. This made me hate life. Everything we do is painful; it's just as senseless as chasing the wind.
    
18. Suddenly I realized that others would someday get everything I had worked for so hard, then I started hating it all.
    
19. Who knows if those people will be sensible or stupid? Either way, they will own everything I have earned by hard work and wisdom. It doesn't make sense.
    
20. I thought about all my hard work, and I felt depressed.
    
21. When we use our wisdom, knowledge, and skill to get what we own, why do we have to leave it to someone who didn't work for it? This is senseless and wrong.
    
22. What do we really gain from all of our hard work?
    
23. Our bodies ache during the day, and work is torture. Then at night our thoughts are troubled. It just doesn't make sense.
    
24. The best thing we can do is to enjoy eating, drinking, and working. I believe these are God's gifts to us,
    
25. and no one enjoys eating and living more than I do.
    
26. If we please God, he will make us wise, understanding, and happy. But if we sin, God will make us struggle for a living, then he will give all we own to someone who pleases him. This makes no more sense than chasing the wind.

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Previously Solomon had examined the benefits of labor. Now he examines the benefits of pleasure. So, with the help of wine he attempted to explore foolishness. However, he did not let go of all restraints. So he accumulated things such as houses and vineyards, gardens and parks. He acquired servants and cattle along with silver and gold. Furthermore he gathered entertainers and concubines. Through all of this he maintained his wisdom, placing limits on his activities.

His conclusion of this experiment was the same as it was for his experiment with labor. It is futile. "What does laughter and pleasure accomplish?" he asked. At the end of his experiment he did an evaluation and found, "everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun." (2:11)

Next Solomon experimented with the advantages of wisdom over folly. The question he raised with this experiment was, "what is the advantage of being wise and having great achievements?" In his conclusion on the experiment, he determined that there is an advantage to wisdom, for with wisedom a man "has eyes in his head," whereas the fool "walks in darkness." But the end result is the same. Both die and their achievements are left to whoever comes after them, and "who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?" A man does his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must leave it to a man who has not worked for it.

So Solomon concluded there is "nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and to enjoy his work." But in this, as in everything, it comes from God's hand. No one, says Solomon, can eat or enjoy life apart from God. To the man who is pleasing to God, "He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy." But to the sinner, God gives the task of, "gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God's sight." (2:26)