Ecclesiastes 2:1
I said in my heart, “Pray, come, I try you with mirth, and look on gladness”; and behold, even it [is] vanity.
Literal Standard Version
In The King James Version
In Context
2Of laughter I said, “Foolish!” And of mirth, “What [is] this it is doing?”
Cross References
Genesis 11:7Give help, let us go down there and confuse their language, so that a man will not understand the language of his companion.”
Psalms 10:6He has said in his heart, “I am not moved, || [And am] not in calamity to generation and generation.”
Psalms 27:8My heart said to You, “They sought my face, || Your face, O YHWH, I seek.”
Ecclesiastes 1:16I spoke with my heart, saying, “I, behold, have magnified and added wisdom above everyone who has been before me at Jerusalem, and my heart has seen wisdom and knowledge abundantly.
Ecclesiastes 2:15and I said in my heart, “As it happens with the fool, it happens also with me, and why am I then more wise?” And I spoke in my heart, that also this [is] vanity:
Ecclesiastes 3:17I said in my heart, “The righteous and the wicked God judges, for a time [is] to every matter and for every work there.”
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 2:1
Solomon having pronounced all vanity, and particularly knowledge and learning, which he was so far from giving himself joy of that he found the increase of it did but increase his sorrow, in this chapter he goes on to show what reason he has to be tired of this world, and with what little reason most men are fond of it. I. He shows that there is no true happiness and satisfaction to be had in mirth and pleasure, and the delights of sense, ver. 1-11 . II. He reconsiders the pretensions of wisdom, and allows it to… Read the whole commentary →