Ecclesiastes 2:26
For to the man who pleases him [God] gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
A Conservative Version
In The King James Version
In Context
25For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, without him?
Cross References
Genesis 7:1And LORD said to Noah, Come, thou and all thy house into the ark, for I have seen thee righteous before me in this generation.
Job 27:16Though he heaps up silver as the dust, and prepares raiment as the clay,
Job 32:8But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
Proverbs 3:13Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding.
Proverbs 28:8He who augments his substance by interest and increase, gathers it for him who has pity on the poor.
Isaiah 3:10Say ye of the righteous, that [it is] well, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
Sources of Dissatisfaction; The Cheerful Use of Abundance. 17 Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. 19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also… Read the whole commentary →