Then I looked on all, &c.— Then I turned myself on all, &c. See the next verse, where the same verb פנה panah, in the original is so rendered. The author represents himself as a man who, being uneasy at his not finding the wished-for happiness, turns from one object to another towards all that is about him; and yet cannot discover what he looks for. This is the more remarkable, as the figure is closely pursued in the following part of the discourse. Here Solomon turns himself toward the objects to take a view of them: but, as a slight view was not sufficient to entitle him to decide that there were no hopes of finding happiness among them, he went round, Ecclesiastes 2:20.; where I make no difficulty to render the verb, I considered every way, as that word surrounding evidently is a metaphorical one. See chap. Ecclesiastes 4:1. This verse contains the general conclusion of the second proof, inferred from the most accurate inquiry into the various methods pursued by men in search of happiness; which conclusion is this, that the pains and trouble necessary to procure pleasure and to acquire knowledge on the one hand, and the value of the acquisition on the other, being duly weighed, there is no overplus; for the most a man gets is but the just value of his trouble; and even that is but transitory. Besides this general conclusion, which flows from the joint consideration of the several particulars whereof men's occupations in this world chiefly consist, special observations may be made on each of those particulars viewed separately. To this purpose our author resumes and considers them again in the subsequent part of this chapter; and even more distinctly than before: for whereas in his first partition he had ranked all under two classes, philosophy and pleasure, the second of which, as he treated it, contained the acquisition of riches, as well as that of pleasure properly so called; now he makes three distinct heads; for the first of which, see on Ecclesiastes 2:17.
Related Commentaries of Ecclesiastes 2:11
Ecclesiastes 2:11
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.