11 These are the words of the Quester, David's son and king in Jerusalem: 2 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That's what the Quester says.] There's nothing to anything - it's all smoke. 3 What's there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
4 One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes - it's business as usual for old planet earth. 5 The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again - the same old round. 6 The wind blows south, the wind blows north. Around and around and around it blows, blowing this way, then that - the whirling, erratic wind. 7 All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea never fills up. The rivers keep flowing to the same old place, and then start all over and do it again. 8 Everything's boring, utterly boring - no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear.
9 What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There's nothing new on this earth. Year after year it's the same old thing. 10 Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"? Don't get excited - it's the same old story. 11 Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody'll remember them either. Don't count on being remembered.
12 Call me "the Quester." I've been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:1-12
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:1-3
(Read Ecclesiastes 1:1-3)
Much is to be learned by comparing one part of Scripture with another. We here behold Solomon returning from the broken and empty cisterns of the world, to the Fountain of living water; recording his own folly and shame, the bitterness of his disappointment, and the lessons he had learned. Those that have taken warning to turn and live, should warn others not to go on and die. He does not merely say all things are vain, but that they are vanity. VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL IS VANITY. This is the text of the preacher's sermon, of which in this book he never loses sight. If this world, in its present state, were all, it would not be worth living for; and the wealth and pleasure of this world, if we had ever so much, are not enough to make us happy. What profit has a man of all his labour? All he gets by it will not supply the wants of the soul, nor satisfy its desires; will not atone for the sins of the soul, nor hinder the loss of it: what profit will the wealth of the world be to the soul in death, in judgment, or in the everlasting state?
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:4-8
(Read Ecclesiastes 1:4-8)
All things change, and never rest. Man, after all his labour, is no nearer finding rest than the sun, the wind, or the current of the river. His soul will find no rest, if he has it not from God. The senses are soon tired, yet still craving what is untried.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
(Read Ecclesiastes 1:9-11)
Men's hearts and their corruptions are the same now as in former times; their desires, and pursuits, and complaints, still the same. This should take us from expecting happiness in the creature, and quicken us to seek eternal blessings. How many things and persons in Solomon's day were thought very great, yet there is no remembrance of them now!
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
(Read Ecclesiastes 1:12-18)
Solomon tried all things, and found them vanity. He found his searches after knowledge weariness, not only to the flesh, but to the mind. The more he saw of the works done under the sun, the more he saw their vanity; and the sight often vexed his spirit. He could neither gain that satisfaction to himself, nor do that good to others, which he expected. Even the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom discovered man's wickedness and misery; so that the more he knew, the more he saw cause to lament and mourn. Let us learn to hate and fear sin, the cause of all this vanity and misery; to value Christ; to seek rest in the knowledge, love, and service of the Saviour.