EasyEnglish Bible 2018
Ecclesiastes 2:18
18I thought about all the hard work that I have done here on the earth. When I die, all the things that I worked so hard to get will belong to the next king. So I hated all my hard work.
Ecclesiastes 2:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)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.
- New International Version (NIV)I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
- English Standard Version (ESV)I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me,
- New King James Version (NKJV)Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me.
Context of Ecclesiastes 2:18
16People forget about wise people as quickly as they forget about fools. One day, nobody will remember any of them. It is true! As fools all have to die, wise people will also die. 17So I hated life. Everything that happens on the earth only brings me trouble. Nothing has any purpose. It is as useless as somebody who tries to catch the wind. I thought about all the hard work that I have done here on the earth. When I die, all the things that I worked so hard to get will belong to the next king. So I hated all my hard work. 19The next king may be a wise man, or he may be a foolish man. Nobody knows! But all the things that I used my wisdom and hard work to get will belong to him. All this has no purpose. 20So I was very upset when I thought about all my hard work on the earth.
Read all of Ecclesiastes 2Ecclesiastes 2:18 word by word
וְשָׂנֵ֤אתִֽי אֲנִי֙ אֶת־כָּל־עֲמָלִ֔י שֶׁאֲנִ֥י עָמֵ֖ל תַּ֣חַת הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ שֶׁ֣אַנִּיחֶ֔נּוּ לָאָדָ֖ם שֶׁיִּהְיֶ֥ה אַחֲרָֽי׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 2:18
- Ecclesiastes 2:4I also did a lot of great things for myself. I built houses. I planted vineyards.
- Ecclesiastes 1:13I decided to study everything that happens on the earth. I used wisdom to try to understand these things. I realized that God has given people hard work to do, which causes them to suffer.
- Ecclesiastes 4:3But people who have not yet been born are even happier! They have not seen the evil things that happen on the earth.
- Ecclesiastes 5:18But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth.
- Ecclesiastes 9:9Love your wife and enjoy your life together with her. God has given you your life. It is a short life and it is difficult to understand everything that happens. God wants you to enjoy these things as you do hard work during your life on the earth.
- Ecclesiastes 2:26God gives wisdom, knowledge and joy to people who please him. Wicked people may work hard and become rich. But God takes away their valuable things and he gives them to someone who pleases him. So their hard work has no purpose. It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
- Ecclesiastes 5:13I have seen another terrible thing that happens on the earth. Some people may store their riches, but it does not help them in a time of trouble.
- 1 Kings 11:1Solomon loved Pharaoh's daughter and many other foreign women. Those women were Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
- Psalms 17:14Lord, use your power to save me from them. They only think about this world, and they enjoy the good things that it gives them. So give them all that you have ready for them. Give them more than they want! May their children also have plenty, and enough left to give to their children too.
- Psalms 39:6As we live, we are just like shadows. We work to get things for ourselves. We may get a lot of money, but we do not know who will have it after we die.’
- Psalms 49:10Surely you see that even wise people die, in the way that fools and stupid people also die. Then their money will belong to someone else.
- Luke 12:20But then God said to the man, “You are a fool! Tonight you will die. You will have to leave everything behind that you have stored. Somebody else will have them, but you will not!” ’
- Luke 16:27The rich man said, “If that is true, father Abraham, please send Lazarus to my family.
- Acts 20:29I know that trouble will come to you after I leave. Bad people will come to teach you. They will cause trouble for the believers, like dangerous wild animals that attack sheep.
- 1 Corinthians 3:10I am like a good builder. God has given that job to me and he has helped me to do it well. I was the person who built the foundation. Now other people are building on that foundation. But each person must be careful how he builds.
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 2:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18I hated all my labor - Because, It has not answered the end for which it was instituted. I can enjoy the fruits of it but a short time. 3. I must leave it to others, and know not whether a wise man, a knave, or a fool will possess it.Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 18-26Verses 18-26 Our hearts are very loth to quit their expectations of great things from the creature; but Solomon came to this at length. The world is a vale of tears, even to those that have much of it. See what fools they are, who make themselves drudges to the world, which affords a man nothing better than subsistence for the body. And the utmost he can attain in this respect is to allow himself a sober, cheerful use thereof, according to his rank and…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 17-20The Teacher began to dislike life because of its: Sorrows (Ecclesiastes 1:18) Hard work (Ecclesiastes 2:18) Seeming pointlessness (Ecclesiastes 2:19–20)Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 18-1918-19. One hope alone was left to the disappointed worldling, the perpetuation of his name and riches, laboriously gathered, through his successor. For selfishness is mostly at the root of worldly parents' alleged providence for their children. But now the remembrance of how he himself, the piously reared child of David, had disregarded his father's dying charge (1Ch 28:9), suggested the sad misgivings as to what Rehoboam, his son by an idolatrous…Read the comment
Topics related to Ecclesiastes 2:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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