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The Futility of Work
Ecclesiastes 2:18-26 wrestles honestly with work, achievement, and enjoyment. The speaker sees a painful problem: people can labour wisely and skilfully, yet still leave the results to someone else. The passage then turns to what can truly be received.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
In this part of Ecclesiastes, the speaker reflects on labour "under the sun" and asks what lasting gain comes from hard work. The passage stays in the form of wisdom reflection and dialogue, moving from despair about labour to a measured statement about enjoying good as something from God.
Ecclesiastes 2:18–26Main takeaway
This passage teaches that work by itself cannot secure lasting control or satisfaction, so any true enjoyment of labour must be received from the hand of God.
Look closely at the words
01Labour must be left behindThe speaker says, "I hated all my labor" because it must be left "to the man who comes after me".
Explanation
The speaker says, "I hated all my labor" because it must be left "to the man who comes after me". The pain is not only hard work itself, but losing control of its outcome. Even work done wisely can end up in another person's hands. That makes it feel empty or "vanity".
02Wise work can still lead to despairThe reflection deepens into despair. A person may labour with "wisdom", "knowledge", and "skillfulness", yet leave the result to someone who did not labour for it.
Explanation
The reflection deepens into despair. A person may labour with "wisdom", "knowledge", and "skillfulness", yet leave the result to someone who did not labour for it. The passage calls this both "vanity" and "a great evil". The question in verse 22 asks what anyone finally has from such striving.
03Work can fill life with griefVerse 23 explains why the speaker feels this so strongly. Labour is linked with "sorrows", "grief", and a heart that "takes no rest" even at night.
Explanation
Verse 23 explains why the speaker feels this so strongly. Labour is linked with "sorrows", "grief", and a heart that "takes no rest" even at night. The problem is not simply being busy. It is the inward burden of striving under the sun when work cannot give lasting security.
04Enjoyment is received from GodThe passage then offers a careful contrast. "There is nothing better" than to eat, drink, and enjoy good in labour, and this enjoyment is said to be "from the hand of God".
Explanation
The passage then offers a careful contrast. "There is nothing better" than to eat, drink, and enjoy good in labour, and this enjoyment is said to be "from the hand of God". God gives "wisdom, knowledge, and joy" to the one who pleases him, while mere gathering and heaping up still ends in vanity.
Questions to explore
01Why does the speaker hate his labour in verses 18-19?
Look for the reason connected to leaving his work to someone after him, who may be wise or foolish.
02What makes labour feel like "a great evil" in verse 21?
Notice that a person may work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, yet another person receives the portion without doing the labour.
03What positive thing does the passage say about work in verses 24-26?
Focus on the words about enjoying good in labour and how that enjoyment is described as coming from God's hand.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Ecclesiastes 2:18–26
18I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
19Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
20Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.
21For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22For what does a man have of all his labor and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?
23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
24There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
25For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?
26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.