Verse 3
1. The vanity of work 1:3
Rather than saying, "All work is vanity," Solomon made the same point by asking this rhetorical question that expects a negative response. He used this literary device often throughout the book (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:2; Ecclesiastes 3:9; Ecclesiastes 6:8; Ecclesiastes 6:11-12; et al.).
"Advantage" (Heb. yitron) refers to what remains in the sense of a net profit (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:13; Ecclesiastes 3:9; Ecclesiastes 5:9; Ecclesiastes 5:16; Ecclesiastes 7:12; Ecclesiastes 10:10-11). This Hebrew word occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. Solomon was not saying there is nothing good about work or that it is worse than being unemployed. He only meant that all the work that a person may engage in does not yield permanent profit-even though it may yield short-term profit, including financial security (cf. Mark 8:36). [Note: See John F. Genung, Words of Koheleth, pp. 214-15.]
"Under the sun," used 29 times in Ecclesiastes and nowhere else in the Old Testament, simply means "on the earth," that is, in terms of human existence (Ecclesiastes 1:9; Ecclesiastes 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:17-20; Ecclesiastes 2:22; Ecclesiastes 3:16; Ecclesiastes 4:1; Ecclesiastes 4:3; Ecclesiastes 4:7; Ecclesiastes 4:15; Ecclesiastes 5:13; Ecclesiastes 5:18; Ecclesiastes 6:1; Ecclesiastes 6:5; Ecclesiastes 6:12; Ecclesiastes 8:9; Ecclesiastes 8:15; Ecclesiastes 8:17; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Ecclesiastes 9:6; Ecclesiastes 9:9; Ecclesiastes 9:11; Ecclesiastes 9:13; Ecclesiastes 10:5; cf. Ecclesiastes 1:13; Ecclesiastes 2:3; Ecclesiastes 3:1). The phrase shows that the writer’s perspective was universal, not limited to his own people and land. [Note: J. S. Wright, p. 1152.] And it shows that Solomon was looking at life from the perspective of man on the earth without the aid of special revelation from God.
"The phrase ’under the sun’ (Ecclesiastes 1:3; Ecclesiastes 1:9) describes life and reality as perceived by mere human observation. It is a world-view devoid of special revelation." [Note: Eugene H. Merrill, in The Old Testament Explorer, p. 505.]
"It defines the outlook of the writer as he looks at life from a human perspective and not necessarily from heaven’s point of view." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 478.]
"This man [Qoheleth] had been living through all these experiences under the sun, concerned with nothing above the sun, on the modern level of experience in the realm of the material, until there came a moment in which he had seen the whole of life. And there was something over the sun. It is only as a man takes account of that which is over the sun as well as that which is under the sun that things under the sun are seen in their true light." [Note: G. Campbell Morgan, The Unfolding Message of the Bible, p. 229.]
"Of course, looked at only ’under the sun,’ a person’s daily work might seem to be futile and burdensome, but the Christian believer can always claim 1 Corinthians 15:58 and labor gladly in the will of God, knowing his labor is ’not in vain in the Lord.’" [Note: Wiersbe, p. 479.]
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