And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
Ver. 10. And whatsoever mine eyes desired, &c.] I fed them with pleasant pictures, shows, sights, and other objects of delight, which yet have plus deceptionis quam delectationis, a able to entice and ready to kill the entangled. How many are there that have died of the wound in the eye; David, knowing the danger, prayeth, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding of vanity." Psa 119:37 Job steps one degree further, from a prayer to a vow, Job 31:1 yea, from a vow to an imprecation. Ecc 2:7 If our first parents fell by following the sight of their eyes and lust of their hearts, what can Solomon or any of us promise of ourselves, qui animas etiam incarnavimus, who have made our very spirit a lump of flesh, prone to entertain vice, yea, to solicit it?
For my heart rejoiced in all my labour.] This is not every worldling's happiness. For some live not to enjoy what they have raked together, as that rich fool in the gospel; others live indeed, but live beside what they have gotten, as not daring to diminish ought, but defrauding their own genius, and denying themselves necessaries. So did not Solomon, and yet he found not the good he sought for either, as he tells us in the next words. Nor is it want of variety in these pleasures, but inward weakness, an emptiness and insufficiency in the creature. In heaven the objects of our delight and blessedness shall be, though uniform, yet everlastingly pleasing.
a Lactant.