I Made Myself Great Works
1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure;” and behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is foolishness;” and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” 3 I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives. 4 I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit. 6 I made myself pools of water, to water the forest where trees were grown. 7 I bought male servants and female servants, and had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men: musical instruments of all sorts. 9 So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me. 10 Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor. 11 Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
The largest inventory of achievement in Scripture is entered as laboratory evidence, and the verdict on all of it is one sentence.
The experiment in verse 1 is pleasure, and it is conducted deliberately: I will test you with mirth. Verse 3 is careful about the controls — he cheered his flesh with wine my heart yet guiding me with wisdom. This is not a man losing himself; it is a man taking notes.
Then the inventory, and its scale is the point. Houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, orchards of every fruit, irrigation pools, male and female servants and servants born in the house, herds and flocks beyond anyone before him, silver and gold, the treasure of kings and provinces, singers, and instruments of all sorts Ecclesiastes 2:4–8.
Every clause begins I made myself or I got myself. Eight verses in which the pronoun never changes, and the repetition is doing the work.
Verse 10 records that he withheld nothing — whatever my eyes desired, I didn't keep from them — and, importantly, that the enjoyment was real: my heart rejoiced because of all my labor. The book does not claim the pleasure failed to arrive.
Then verse 11, one sentence of accounting after eight verses of acquisition. I looked at all the works that my hands had worked... and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
The verb looked is the hinge. The problem was not in the having but in the turning around to survey it. And the word for profit is the commercial term from the book's third verse — the question asked at the outset is now answered, and the answer is nothing left over.
settled What this mark means