Ecclesiastes 2:23

Ecc 2:23 For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

Ver. 23. For all his days are sorrows, &c.] All the days of the afflicted are evil, {Pro 15:15} and every day hath a sufficient evil laid upon it by God. {Mat 6:34} "Few and evil" were the days of Jacob’s pilgrimage. {Gen 47:9} God gave him not a draught only of the cup of affliction, but made him a diet drink. "Man is born to trouble," saith Eliphaz, {Job 5:7} "as the sparks fly upward." Man and miserable are in a manner terms convertible. He that remembers that himself is a man, will not think much of any sorrow betides him, saith the heathen orator. {a} For,

“ Si nisi res cuius nulla est contraria votis

Vivere nemo potest, vivere nemo potest. ”

Yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night.] As a clock can never stand still so long as the plummets hang thereat, so neither can a worldling’s heart for cares and anxieties. These gnats will not suffer him to sleep; these flies of Egypt are continually stinging him, Nocte ac die non dabunt requiem, as those tyrants. {Jer 16:13} Night and day he is disquieted with them; he lies upon a pillow stuffed with thorns. Not so the godly man; he contracts his cares into a narrow compass, communes with his own heart upon his bed, and having made all even with God, sleeps undisturbed. {Psa 3:5; Psa 4:8} Jacob rests sweetly when his head lay upon a hard stone at Bethel. Ahasuerus cannot rest, though upon a bed of down, but calls for the chronicles. It was wisely done of Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, to put off his cares together with his clothes; when he laid by his gown he would commonly say, Lie there Lord Treasurer, and so quietly compose himself to take his sleep. {b} "In nothing be careful," saith the apostle, "but let the peace of God guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." {Php 4:6-7}

{a} O μεμνημενος οτι εστιν ανθρωπος, &c. - Isocr.

{b} Camden.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The only fruit he has is, not only sorrows in his days, but all his days are sorrows, and his travail (not only has griefs connected with it, but is itself), grief.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. His days are sorrows] What a picture of human life where the heart is not filled with the peace and love of God! All his days are sorrows; all his labours griefs; all his nights restless; for he has no portion but merely what earth can give; and that is embittered by the labour of acquisition, and the disappointment in the using.

This is also vanity.] Emptiness of good and substantial misery.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(23) The fact that the wise man must surrender his acquisitions exhibits the inutility of the painful toil by which he has gained them.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night] The verse speaks out the experience of the men who labour for that which does not profit. There is no real pleasure, even at the time. The “cares of this world” come together with “the pleasures of this life” (Luk_8:14). We trace the same yearning after the “sweet sleep” that lies in the far-off past as in ch. Ecc_5:12, perhaps also in the “almond tree” of ch. Ecc_12:5. So has the great master-poet portrayed the wakefulness of successful ambition, the yearning for the sleep of the “smoky crib,” or even of the ship-boy on the mast, the terrible conclusion,

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

Shakespeare, Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. 1.

No “poppies” or “mandragora” can restore that sleep to the slave of mammon or the worn out sensualist.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief,.... All his days are full of sorrows, of a variety of them; and all his affairs and transactions of life are attended with grief and trouble; not only the days of old age are evil ones, in which he can take no pleasure; or those times which exceed the common age of man, when he is got to fourscore years or more, and when his strength is labour and sorrow; but even all his days, be they fewer or more, from his youth upward, are all evil and full of trouble, Gen 47:9;

yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night; which is appointed for rest and ease; and when laid down on his bed for it, as the word signifies; yet, either through an eager desire of getting wealth, or through anxious and distressing cares for the keeping it when gotten, he cannot sleep quietly and comfortably, his carking cares and anxious thoughts keep him waking; or, if he sleeps, his mind is distressed with dreams and frightful apprehensions of things, so that his sleep is not sweet and refreshing to him.

This is also vanity; or one of the vanities which belong to human life.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For all his days are sorrows; or, though all his days were sorrows, i.e. full of sorrows. For this seems added to aggravate the evil mentioned in the foregoing verse. Though he took great and unwearied pains all his days, yet after death he hath no more benefit by it than another man hath.

His travail grief; the toils of his body are, or were, accompanied with the vexations of his mind.

Taketh not rest in the night; either because his mind is distracted, or his sleep broken, with perplexing cares and fears.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. His days… sorrows — Better, All his days his business is anxious and vexing: and often fails, both in its prosecution and results, to yield the satisfaction and comfort he had expected. Surely, this is also vanity.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All his days are sorrow, and his travail grief (comp. Ecc_5:16, Ecc_5:17) These are the real results of his lifelong efforts. All his days are pains and sorrows, bring trouble with them, and all his labor ends in grief. "Sorrows" and "grief" are pretreated respectively of "days" and "travail." Abstract nouns are often so used. Thus Ecc_10:12, "The words of a wise man"s mouth are grace." The free-thinkers in RAPC Wis 2:1 complain that life is short and tedious (luphrov). Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. He cannot sleep for thinking over his plans and hopes and disappointments. Not for him is the sweet sleep of the laboring man, who does his day"s work, earns his repose, and frets not about the future. On the one hand care, on the ether satiety, murder sleep, and make the night torment.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sorrows - Full of sorrows. Tho' he took great and unwearied pains all his days, yet the toils of his body were accompanied with vexation of mind. His heart - Because his sleep was broken with perplexing cares.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

his occupation Heb. עִנְיָנוֹ, his custom.

this too is one of the vanities that prevail in the world.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.