Matthew Henry

“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”

“And, as some think, one main thing he designed was to show that the everlasting throne and kingdom which God had by Nathan promised to David and his seed must be of another world; for all things in this world are subject to vanity, and…”

What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?

“It is labour under the sun; that is a phrase peculiar to this book, where we meet with it twenty-eight times.”

All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing.

“We must therefore look above the sun for satisfaction, and for a new world. That this world is, at the best, a weary land: All is vanity, for all is full of labour.”

What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

“The paths of learning are as much a labyrinth as ever they were. The minds and manners of men are crooked and perverse.”

So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.

“It vexed him to see many that had wisdom not use it, and many that had folly not strive against it.”

I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”

“(1.) It does no good: What doeth it? Cui bono--of what use is it? It will not avail to quiet a guilty conscience; no, nor to ease a sorrowful spirit; nothing is more ungrateful than singing songs to a heavy heart.”

I acquired menservants and maidservants, and servants were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me,

“He enjoyed, more than ever any man did, a composition of rational and sensitive pleasures at the same time. He was, in this respect, great, and increased more than all that were before him, that he was wise amidst a thousand earthly enjoyments.”

So I became great and surpassed all in Jerusalem who had preceded me; and my wisdom remained with me.

“But thus far his wisdom remained with him that he was master of his pleasures, and not a slave to them, and kept himself capable of making a judgment of them.”

Anything my eyes desired, I did not deny myself. I refused my heart no pleasure.

“He met with no disappointment in it to give him any disturbance: This was my portion of all my labour; he had this added to all the rest of his pleasures that in them he did not only see, but eat, the labour of his…”

The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.

“A man that is discreet and considerate has the command of his business, and acts decently and safely, as those that walk in the day; but he that is rash, and ignorant, and sottish, is continually making blunders, running upon one precipice or other; his…”

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

“There is business above the sun, perpetual business, which is perpetual blessedness; what we do in conformity to that business (doing God's will as it is done in heaven ) and in pursuance of that blessedness, will turn to a good account; we shall have…”

And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun.

“This expresses not a gracious hatred of these things, which is our duty, to love them less than God and religion ( Luke xiv.”

So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.

“Our hearts are very loth to quit their expectations of great things from the creature; we must go about, must fetch a compass, in arguing with them, to convince them that there is not that in the things of this world which we are apt…”

When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too…

“It was rational business, which related to the government of his kingdom and the advancement of its interests. It was labour managed by the dictates of wisdom, of natural and acquired knowledge, and the directions of justice.”

For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?

“What has he to himself and to his own use? What has he that will go with him into another world?”

Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

“Those that are apt to fret find that the more dealings they have in the world the oftener they are made to fret. The world is a vale of tears, even to those that have much of it.”

Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.

“What that good is which is here recommended to us; and which is the utmost pleasure and profit we can expect or extract from the business and profit of this world, and the furthest we can go to rescue it from its vanity and the…”

For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?

“To those who are good in God's sight, who are of a good spirit, honest and sincere, pay a deference to their God and have a tender concern for all mankind, God will give wisdom and knowledge in this world, and joy with the righteous…”

a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

“A time to embrace a friend when we find him faithful, but a time to refrain from embracing when we find he is unfair or unfaithful, and that we have cause to suspect him; it is then our prudence to be shy and keep at…”

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning…

“We see but the middle of God's works, not from the beginning of them (then we should see how admirably the plan was laid in the divine counsels), nor to the end of them, which crowns the action (then we should see the product to…”

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and do good while they live, and also that every man should eat and drink and find satisfaction…

“What have we our beings, capacities, and estates for, but to be some way serviceable to our generation? We mistake if we think we were born for ourselves.”

I know that everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God does it so that they should fear Him.

“He is in one mind, and who can turn him? His measures are never broken, nor is he ever put upon new counsels, but what he has purposed shall be effected, and all the world cannot defeat nor disannul it.”

For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath.

“That which befals the sons of men is no other than that which befals beasts; a great deal of knowledge of human bodies is gained by the anatomy of the bodies of brutes.”

Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?

“It is certain that the spirit of the sons of men at death is ascending; it goes upwards to the Father of spirits, who made it, to the world of spirits to which it is allied; it dies not with the body, but is redeemed…”

Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun.

“Such oppressions are done under the sun; above the sun righteousness reigns for ever. Wise men will consider these oppressions, and contrive to do something for the relief of those that are oppressed. Blessed is he that considers the poor.”