New American Standard Bible 2020

Ecclesiastes 2:18-23

18So I hated 1all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, because I must 2leave it to the man who will come after me. 19And who knows whether he will be wise or 3a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is 4futility. 20Therefore I 5completely despaired over all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun. 21When there is a person who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and 6skill, and then 7gives his 8legacy to one who has not labored for it; this too is futility and a great evil. 22For what does a person get in 9all his labor and in 10his striving with which he labors under the sun? 23Because all his days his activity is painful and 11irritating; even at night his 12mind 13does not rest. This too is futility.

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Notes

1. Ecclesiastes 2:18 Eccl 1:3; 2:11 ↩
2. Ecclesiastes 2:18 Ps 39:6; 49:10 ↩
3. Ecclesiastes 2:19 1 Kin 12:13 ↩
4. Ecclesiastes 2:19 1 Tim 6:10 ↩
5. Ecclesiastes 2:20 Lit turned aside my heart to despair ↩
6. Ecclesiastes 2:21 Eccl 4:4 ↩
7. Ecclesiastes 2:21 Eccl 2:18 ↩
8. Ecclesiastes 2:21 Lit share ↩
9. Ecclesiastes 2:22 Eccl 1:3; 2:11 ↩
10. Ecclesiastes 2:22 Lit the striving of his heart ↩
11. Ecclesiastes 2:23 Job 5:7; 14:1; Eccl 1:18; 5:17 ↩
12. Ecclesiastes 2:23 Lit heart ↩
13. Ecclesiastes 2:23 Ps 127:2 ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 2