Ecclesiastes 1:3

What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? WHAT PROOF HATH A MAN OF ALL HIS LABOUR - i:e., "What profit" as to the chief good? (.) Labour is profitable in its proper place (; ; ). "An man" - Hebrew, laadam; literally, 'the earthly one,' implying man's earthly frailty. UNDER THE SUN? - i:e., in this life, as opposed to the future world. The phrase often recurs, but only in Ecclesiates....

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...

Verse Ecclesiastes 1:3. _WHAT PROFIT HATH A MAN_] What is the sum of the real good he has gained by all his toils in life? They, in themselves, have neither made him _contented_ nor _happy_....

WHAT PROFIT ... - The question often repeated is the great practical inquiry of the book; it receives its final answer in Ecclesiastes 12:13. When this question was asked, the Lord had not yet spoken Matthew 11:28. The word “profit” (or pre-eminence) is opposed to “vanity.” HATH A MAN - Rather, hath man....

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 1:1 THE TITLE. THE WORDS OF THE PREACHER, THE SON OF DAVID, KING IN JERUSALEM; Septuagint, "King of Israel in Jerusalem" (comp.Ecclesiastes 1:12). The word rendered "Preacher" is _Koheleth_,_ _a feminine noun formed from a verb _kalal_,_ _"to call" (see Introduction, § 1), and perhaps better rendered" Convener" or "Debater." It is found nowhere else but in this book, where it occurs three times in this chapter (Ecclesiastes 1:1, Ecclesiastes 1:2,...

WHAT PROFIT HATH A MAN OF ALL HIS LABOUR WHICH HE TAKETH UNDER THE SUN?] This is a general proof of the vanity of all things, since there is no profit arises to a man of all his labour; for, though it is put by way of question, it carries in it a strong negative. All things a man enjoys he gets by labour; for man, through sin, is doomed and born unto it, Job 5:7; he gets his bread by the sweat of his brow, which is a part of the curse for sin; and the wealth and riches got by a diligent hand, with a divine blessing, are got by labour; and so all knowledge of natural and civil things is acquired through much labour and weariness of the flesh; and these are things a man labours for "under the sun", which measures out the time of his labour: when the sun riseth, man goeth forth to his labour; and, by the light and comfortable warmth of it, he performs his work with more exactness and cheerf...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS PART I. Chapter S 1-6 1. The Prologue and the Search Begun CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The introduction and prologue (Ecclesiastes 1:1)_ 2. The seeker; his method and the results (Ecclesiastes 1:12) Ecclesiastes 1:1. In the general introduction we have already referred to the opening verses as giving the information who the author is and what is the object of his treatise. So sure is the critical school that Solomon is not the king mentioned that one says “the fact that Solomon is not the author, but is introduced in a literary figure, has become such an axiom of the present day interpretation of the book, that no extended argument to prove

ECCLESIASTES 1:2 may be called an introduction to the book; it also presents the writer's conclusions. He has surveyed life from many angles and decided that all human effort is fruitless and unavailing, or as he puts it, vanity. This is his key-word (the Hebrew means vapour, breath, and so nothingness): it occurs forty times. VANITY OF VANITIES is the Heb. way of saying utmost vanity. Man toils under the sun, _i.e._ upon the earth, but reaps no gain; like players on a stage the ever-changing generations come and go, while the earth, man's scene of toil, abides. As with man so with nature; sun, winds (north and south, _cf._ Ca. Ecclesiastes 4:16), streams, all pursue a dreary round of endless repetition and accomplish nothing, _e.g._ the sea is never filled. The whole

MAN. Hebrew. _'adam_. the natural man. App-14. LABOUR. toil. UNDER THE SUN. This expression is peculiar to this book, and occurs twenty-nine times: (Ecclesiastes 1:3; Ecclesiastes 1:9; Ecclesiastes 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:17; Ecclesiastes 2:18; Ecclesiastes 2:19;...

_What profit hath a man_ The question is, it is obvious, as in the analogous question of Matthew 16:26, the most emphatic form of a negation. For "all his labour which he taketh" read ALL HIS TOIL WHICH HE TOILETH, the Hebrew giving the emphasis of the combination of the verb with its cognate substantive. The DEBATER sums up his experience of life in this, "There is toil, and the toil is profitless." The word for "profit," not meeting us elsewhere in the Hebrew of the O. T., occurs ten times in Ecclesiastes. Its strict meaning is "that which remains," the surplus, if any, of the balance-sheet of life. It was, probably, one of the words which the commerce of the Jews, after the Captivity, had brought into common use. The question is in substance, almost in form, identical with that of our times "Is life worth living?" _under the sun_ The phrase thus used, occurring 29