Albert Barnes Commentary Ecclesiastes 1:13

"And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven: it is a sore travail that God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith." — Ecclesiastes 1:13 (ASV)

Wisdom - As including both the powers of observation and judgment, and the knowledge acquired by that means (1 Kings 3:28; 1 Kings 4:29; 1 Kings 10:8, and others). It increases by exercise. Here, its application to people and their actions is noted.

Travail - In the sense of toil; the word is here applied to all human occupations.

God - God is named as אלהים 'elohı̂ym thirty-nine times in this book; a name common to the true God and to false gods, and used by believers and by idolaters; but the name Yahweh, by which He is known especially to the people who are in covenant with Him, is never once used.

Perhaps the chief reason for this is that the evil which is the object of inquiry in this book is not at all unique to the chosen people. All creation groans under it (Romans 8:0). The Preacher does not write of (or, to) the Hebrew race exclusively. There is no express and obvious reference to their national expectations, the events of their national history, or even to the divine oracles which were deposited with them. Hence, it was natural for the wisest and largest-hearted man of his race to take a wider range of observation than any other Hebrew writer before or after him.

It was fitting for the sovereign of many peoples, whose religions diverged more or less remotely from the true religion, to address a more extensive sphere than that occupied by the twelve tribes, and to adapt his language accordingly. See the note on Ecclesiastes 5:1.