Ecclesiastes 2:11 Commentary and Bible Study

There came a point when he was able to break free from the treadmill of seeking fulfilment in this world long enough to reflect on what he was doing. The word ‘looked on’ includes the idea of turning and therefore is best translated by a word like ‘consider’ or ‘reconsider’, for Solomon had previously formed one opinion of this world but now in a more sober moment formed another. Now that he looked more carefully, he saw through the mirage of gain which fools so many.His conclusion was stark and painful – ‘All indeed is vanity and grasping for the wind, or vexation of spirit, and there is no profit under the sun.’ What a waste of time and energy all his labour had been, for what had seemed to offer gain was really an illusion designed to trap those who make an idol of this world. Like one who tries to satisfy his thirst with sea water, he only increased it. All the planning and forethought which he undertook in his search, and all the wisdom that guided him did not make the smallest dent on the world. The universal rule enforced by the curse still applied – that all attempts to find satisfaction in life without God are doomed. Like someone who tries to break down some law of nature and to invent, for instance, a perpetual motion machine, every imaginative effort to side step the laws of mechanics is thwarted. It did not matter that Solomon succeeded in achieving what had never been achieved before, his search still lay within the realm of the fall, and God will not allow the law of the curse to be cheated.