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Ecclesiastes 2:21

For when someone labors in wisdom, and doctrine, and prudence, he leaves behind what he has obtained to one who is idle. So this, too, is emptiness and a great burden.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

In Context

20Therefore, I ceased, and my heart renounced further laboring under the sun.

22For how can a man benefit from all his labor and affliction of spirit, by which he has been tormented under the sun?

Read all of Ecclesiastes 2

Cross References

2 Chronicles 31:20Therefore, Hezekiah did all these things (which we have said) in all of Judah. And he worked what is good and upright and true before the Lord his God,

2 Chronicles 34:2And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of his father David. He did not turn away, neither to the right, nor to the left.

2 Chronicles 36:5Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did evil before the Lord his God.

Psalms 49:11I know all the flying things of the air, and the beauty of the field is with me.

Ecclesiastes 9:18Wisdom is better than weapons of war. And whoever offends in one thing, shall lose many good things.

Jeremiah 22:17Yet truly, your eyes and your heart are toward avarice and the shedding of innocent blood, and toward false accusations and the pursuit of evil deeds.

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

King James VersionBíblia Portuguesa MundialLuther Bibel (Deutsch)Bible Louis Segond (Français)Библия (Русский)新标点和合本성경 (한국어)الكتاب المقدس باللغة العربية، فان دايكBibbia Diodati (Italiano)Kinh Thánh (Tiếng Việt)Biblia Cornilescu (Română)Polish Biblia Gdanska (1881)Statenvertaling (Nederlands)

Study Ecclesiastes 2:21

Matthew HenryJamieson-Fausset-BrownAdam ClarkeJohn WesleyJohn CalvinKeil and DelitzschScofieldFamily Bible NotesGeneva Bible Notes (1599)
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