John Gill Commentary Ecclesiastes 2:20

"Therefore I turned about to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor wherein I had labored under the sun." — Ecclesiastes 2:20 (ASV)

Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair
Of ever finding happiness in anything here below. He "turned about" ^F25 , as the word signifies, dropped his severe studies of wisdom, and his eager pursuits of pleasure; and desisted from those toilsome works, in which he had employed himself;

and went from one thing to another, and settled and stuck at nothing, on purpose to relax his mind, as the Syriac version renders it; to divest it of all anxious thought and care, and call it off from its vain and fruitless undertakings; and be no more concerned about or thoughtful of all the labour which I took under the sun ;
and what will be the consequence and issue of it; but quietly leave all to an all wise disposing Providence; and not seek for happiness in anything under the sun, but in those things that are above it; not in this world, but in the world to come.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (ytwbow) "versus sum", Montanus; "et ego verti me", Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus.