Verse 2

A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacketh nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet a God giveth him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.

(a) He shows that it is the plague of God when the rich man does not have a liberal heart to use his riches.

Verse 3

If a man begetteth an hundred [children], and liveth many years, so that the days of his years are many, and his soul is not b filled with good, and also [that] he hath no c burial; I say, [that] an untimely birth [is] better than he.

(b) If he can never have enough.

(c) As we see often that the covetous man either falls into crimes that deserve death, or is murdered or drowned or hangs himself or such like and so lacks the honour of burial, which is the last office of humanity.

Verse 4

For d he cometh with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

(d) Meaning, the untimely fruit whose life neither profited nor hurt any.

Verse 7

All the labour of man [is] for his mouth, and yet the e appetite is not filled.

(e) His desire and affection.

Verse 9

Better [is] the g sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit.

(g) To be content with that which God has given is better than to follow the desires that can never be satisfied.

Verse 10

That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it [is] man: neither may he contend with him that is h mightier than he.

(h) Meaning, God who will make him feel that he is mortal.

Verse 12

For who knoweth what [is] a good for man in [this] life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

(a) There is no state in which man can live to have perfect quietness in this life.