Ecclesiastes 3:12 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

I know. — Literally, I knew: i.e., I came to know. The writer is relating the conclusions at which he successively arrived.

To do good. — This phrase is always used elsewhere in a moral sense: “to act rightly.” When enjoyment is meant, the phrase used is, as in the next verse, “to see good;” but the context seems to require that this sense should be given to the phrase in this verse also.

Ecclesiastes 3:12

12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.