Ecclesiastes 4:7 Commentary and Bible Study

Solomon anticipates our objection: people work hard for their families; they do it for others. Do they really? he says. I know people who strive endlessly, but they have no family. Observe the phenomenon of men voluntarily engaging in painful and costly labour, as if driven by a cruel taskmaster, and yet without any real object in view. They labour as if they urgently needed to provide for another, and yet there are no others there for them to provide for. A man slaves away without wife or children, without brother or dependants of any sort who can benefit from the results of all his hard work. He stores up far more than he can personally use, and yet spends little time enjoying what he has already gained. The disease is or course more widespread than just those who have no dependants, but it is most easily observed in their case since it is obvious that their labour is not for another. Such a man never give himself rest, he cannot break off from his compulsive labour, and he drives himself as if he was in danger of being reduced to poverty at any moment. However much he already has, it is never enough and so he pushes himself on to earn more and more and never reaches the point where he says, ‘I have enough’. He never stops to ask the question, ‘Why am I doing all this? Who is going to gain from what I am accumulating?’ He reaches the end of life with mountains of goods which he cannot take with him from this world and which he will never have time to spend. The process of gathering all this wealth has deprived him of all peace of mind and rest. He has rushed along life’s path, a compulsive workaholic, and in an extraordinary way he has separated in his mind the connection between labour and the enjoyment of the fruits of labour. He therefore does not seriously ask the obvious question, ‘Why am I doing all this?’