"I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding [me] with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their life." — Ecclesiastes 2:3 (ASV)

Sought.—The word translated “search out” (Ecclesiastes 1:13).

“Draw,” margin. There is no Biblical parallel for the use of the word in this sense. The general meaning is plain.

Acquainting.—Rather, guiding. The word is used of the driver of an animal or the shepherd of a flock (2 Samuel 6:3; Psalms 80:1; Isaiah 63:4). Kohéleth contemplated not an unrestrained enjoyment of pleasure, but one controlled by prudence.

All the days.—(See margin). This phrase occurs again in Ecclesiastes 5:17; Ecclesiastes 6:12. We have “men of number” in the sense of “few”—i.e., so few that they can be numbered (Genesis 34:30, and often elsewhere). So we may translate here “for their span of life.”

Verse 4

"I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards;" — Ecclesiastes 2:4 (ASV)

Houses. — 1 Kings 5:11; 2 Chronicles 8:4.

Vineyards. — 1 Chronicles 27:27; Song of Solomon 8:11.

Verse 5

"I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit;" — Ecclesiastes 2:5 (ASV)

Orchards. —Rather, parks. The word, which occurs also in Song of Solomon 4:3, Nehemiah 2:8, is originally Persian, and passed into the Greek and into modern languages in the form of “paradise” (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; and in the Septuagint, Genesis 2:10; Genesis 13:10; Numbers 24:6; Isaiah 1:30). Parks and trees, giving not only fruit, but shade from the hot Eastern sun, were an almost necessary part of kingly luxury. The king’s garden is spoken of in 1 Kings 21:2; 2 Kings 21:18; 2 Kings 25:4; Nehemiah 3:15.

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