Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up [riches], and knoweth not who shall gather them.
Ver. 6. Surely every man walketh in a vain show] Heb. in an image, or in a shadow, as Job 14:2; in the shadow of death, as some sense it; his life is like a picture drawn upon the water, saith Theodoret; it passeth away as a hasty, headlong torrent. Verily, surely, surely, it is so; Selah, you may seal to it.
Surely they are disquieted in vain] Heb. They keep a stir, and trouble the world, as did great Alexander; who, surfeiting of his excessive fortunes, from the darling of heaven, came to be the disdain of the earth, which he had so oft disquieted. Two fits of an ague could shake great Tameriane to death. So the Emperor Adrian, who, troubling himself and others to little good purpose, died with this saying in his mouth, Omnia fui, et nihil profuit, I have tried all conclusions, but got nothing. And saith not Solomon as much in his Ecclesiastes?
He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them] i.e. Enjoy them. See Ecclesiastes 2:18,19, and be moderate. Think when you lock up your money in your chest, saith one, who shall shortly lock you up in your coffin. Think how that this very night thy soul may be required of thee; and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? Luke 12:20 .