And I saw all labour, and all success of work, that it is man's jealousy of his neighbour. This also is vanity and pursuit of the wind.
The Preacher turns from the tears of the oppressed to something that looks far better: hard work, skill and achievement. Yet he finds a worm in it, because the drive behind the effort is one man measuring himself against his neighbour — so what is left to work for?
The verse sits inside a short survey of extremes. One writer reads verse 4 as the story of the man who has made it:
Verses 4-7. As he goes on with his observations, he mentions the successful man, the man who has made life worth living. But success breeds envy. It makes his life bitter. Instead of being loved, the successful man is hated. What else is it then but vanity and a striving after wind! But now the other extreme. It is the lazy man, the fool who eats his own flesh.
Older translations read the line the other way round: the successful man is envied by his neighbour. The ESV instead traces the work itself back to envy. Either way, envy stands between the two men.
The trap has two jaws. Work hard and people resent you. Refuse to work and you destroy yourself. One commentator gives the verdict:
That is man: success only stirs up envy in his neighbour, and bitter self-torment in the fool. Here, as before, only the quiet, thankful soul is wise.
Envy feeds on a neighbour's success. The better a man does, the more he becomes a target. That is what makes this sin strange: good, not wrongdoing, sets it off.
James does not hesitate to say that envy is a root of every evil work (Jas. 3:16). It is worse than wrath or anger; no one can stand before envy (Prov. 27:4). It holds back growth in grace (1 Pet. 2:1,2). It is one of the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:21), and one our spirits fall into easily (Jas. 4:5). The prosperity and good deeds of others produce it (Eccles. 4:4), and so do arguments and disputes (1 Tim. 6:4).
Envy has a twin in hypocrisy, and the two work in opposite directions:
Hypocrisy springs from claiming to have the good we lack. In the same way, envy seeks to deny and defame the real good in others.
Read the other way, the verse exposes why people work at all. The goal is not the job; it is the gap between me and the man next door.
To have something that others do not have is a very deep-seated desire in the heart of fallen man. Only a few, however, can ever reach it. So the rest settle for pretending to have what makes them better than the people around them.
What the achievement is hardly matters. What matters is that it sets me apart from someone else:
Man glories in anything that will bring honour to himself — anything that sets him apart from his neighbour. It does not matter what it is (it may be that he is the tallest man). His pride will take hold of whatever gives him an advantage over others. … Wealth, knowledge, anything that marks a man out, he will glory in, and build a little world around himself with it.
Ecclesiastes offers no method for fixing this. The Preacher looks only at things in this present life, and within those limits there is no repair:
Until Christ returns, there is no proper correction or remedy. The Preacher, who speaks here only of present things, could do no more than praise the dead who had already gone, or the unborn who had seen nothing.
Yet the book does not leave us there. It points to one way out, and that way out is a Person:
Faith in Jesus, says the apostle, is the one and only way out of a state of condemnation. Living to Jesus, says the Book of Ecclesiastes, is the one and only way out of a state of vanity. And we may well rejoice at how simple such relief is from conditions so heavy and painful.
That changes what work is for, without excusing laziness:
The fact that mere man's work is vanity is no reason to be lazy in the Lord's work. Faith in the Living God and hard work go together, for in this there is no vanity: "in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
- Cause. Comparison drives much human achievement — the wish to hold what a neighbour does not hold.
- Cost. Envy feeds on another's prosperity and good deeds, not on their sins, and it works to deny and defame the good it sees.
- Trap. Both roads end in emptiness: others resent the successful man, and the idle man consumes himself.
- Limit. Ecclesiastes offers no remedy within this world; correction waits for Christ's return.
- Outlet. Living to Jesus is the way out of vanity, and work done for Him is the one labour that is not in vain.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
Ecclesiastes 4 has just looked at the man whose hard work only wins him envy. Now it turns to his opposite: the man who does nothing at all. The picture is ugly — folded hands, and a man feeding on himself. Why does the Preacher set laziness beside envy, and what does he offer instead?
This verse sits between two others. Before it stands the man whose success only earns him hate. After it comes the handful of quietness.
As he goes on watching, he points to the successful man, the man who has made life worth living. But success breeds envy. It makes his life bitter. People hate the successful man instead of loving him. So what is it but vanity and a striving after wind! But now another extreme. It is the sluggard, the lazy man, the fool who eats his own flesh. But here is the best that human wisdom can suggest. Avoiding both extremes, he says, "Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind."
Folded hands look restful. Scripture calls the man who folds them a fool, because work belongs to what human beings were made for.
God did not make man in His image and likeness for such indifference. When man fell, he gained a conscience to know good and evil — something he did not have, and could not have, in a state of innocence. So we read, "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich." As man, it is good for him to eat bread in the sweat of his face. An idler is open to evil as well as poverty; the diligent works not in vain.
Doing nothing is not harmless. The same writer traces the small, comfortable steps that ruin the lazy man — steps that need no scandal to be deadly.
The careless man lives to sleep his life away. It is "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest." He may be innocent of strong drink, of sensual pleasure, of wasteful company. His laziness makes his ruin certain. "Poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man."
The picture is violent, and it points back at the fool himself. Commentators read it in different shades. Gaebelein simply names him the fool who eats his own flesh. Kelly hears in it the fool's bitter self-torment when he sees others do well.
Such is man: success only stirs up envy in his neighbour, and bitter self-torment in the fool. The quiet, thankful soul here, as before, is the only wise one.
Either way, the wound is self-inflicted.
Ecclesiastes is honest about the limits of its own view.
Until Christ returns, there is no proper correction and no putting things right. The Preacher speaks here only of things in the present. So he could do no more than praise the dead who had gone, or the unborn who had seen nothing.
Folded hands have a spiritual version too. One writer pictures a young believer he names Mr. Slothful.
I went to the house of young Mr. Slothful. Many other books hid his Bible from sight. Thick dust had covered its back and sides, and his regular habits of daily prayer had broken down. I saw all this and thought it over, and I knew the reason. Young Mr. Slothful had been taking a little more sleep in the mornings, easing off a little with the usual duties, giving himself a little more comfort in everything. And now spiritual poverty has come upon him like a robber. He is cold in heart and estranged in ways. But it is all the fruit of his own simple neglect.
- Two handfuls — success won by hard toil breeds envy, not love. The Preacher calls it striving after wind.
- No handful — the other extreme is the fool with folded hands. Refusing work is not rest but folly. God made man in His image, not for indifference.
- Self-consuming — his loss is self-inflicted. Idleness feeds on the idler. Poverty comes on him like a robber, though he was innocent of any louder vice.
- One handful — between the two extremes stands the quiet, thankful soul. He alone is wise.
- Until Christ — nothing is fully put right under the sun. The correction waits for Christ's return.
Better is a handful with quietness, than both hands full with labour and pursuit of the wind.
This proverb sits between two ruined lives: the worker whose success draws envy, and the lazy fool who destroys himself. The question is not how much a person can gain, but what the gaining costs.
One writer reads the verse as a middle way between two lives, one on each side of it.
In continuing his observations he mentions the successful man, the man who has made life worth living. But success breeds envy. It makes his life bitter. Instead of being loved, the successful man is hated. What else is it then but vanity and a striving after wind! But now another extreme. It is the sluggard, the lazy man, the fool who eats his own flesh. But here is the best human wisdom can suggest. Avoiding both extremes, he declares, "Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind."
Full hands are not the problem in themselves. The problem is what success stirs up in other people — and what laziness does to the fool.
This is what man is like: success only stirs up envy in the neighbour, and bitter self-torment in the fool. Here, as before, only the quiet, thankful soul is wise.
The chapter around this verse is full of wrongs that nobody puts right. Neither hard work nor idleness escapes them.
Ecclesiastes 4 expresses the deep sorrow caused by the crying injustice of a sinful world. It speaks of the wrongs that are never put right, which make up the history of our race. To anyone with a sense of natural justice, those wrongs make the history of man unbearable, and they create the desire to put an end to it. Hard work and laziness alike bring their share of distress. Still, in the middle of this quicksand where there is no firm ground, we see the thought of God arise, giving a firm foundation to heart and mind.
Kelly says why those wrongs stay unfixed: "Until Christ returns, there is no proper correction or putting right."
The two handfuls come with "a striving after wind" — a chase that never catches anything. One writer shows what that chase looks like in ordinary life.
Man craves something by nature. He thirsts for what he does not have, and has an aching emptiness in his heart. He tries to fill it, and fails. As their minds develop, and their tastes and leanings form, people pick out things to interest them and meet their wishes. But wherever they turn, and whatever they have, their experience is that everything under the sun is vanity and a striving after wind. Still, if one thing brings its sorrowful disappointment, they chase another. Many, it is to be feared, waste life away with no better experience than running from one thing to the next in this evil world, seeking rest and finding none.
A handful is only "better" if something steadies the heart that holds it. One writer names the root of that steadiness.
If the two things are present, godliness and contentment, this is a great gain. Contentment alone could not be this. On its own it would be something the flesh could boast in. Godliness must come first, and be the root cause of contentment. Paul himself was a true example of this — compare Philippians 4:11-13. If Christ is truly the Object of the soul, will this not produce a contented spirit? And it is a most fitting reminder for us that in entering the world we had nothing, and in leaving it we shall take nothing. Why then grasp all that we can, as though it is this on which we depend?
A quiet, contented life does not stay private. Other people notice it, and one writer says what that can lead to.
We need the quietness of mind and contentment that the knowledge of God gives, if we are to trade well. If we are marked by worry and irritability and discontent, men of the world might well say to us, "What have you got that we have not?" But if they see that we have something that holds us up in trial and keeps us quiet in the middle of the stress and wear of life, they may be ready to listen to our words.
- Two extremes. The verse stands between two men. One is hated for his success. The other destroys himself by doing nothing.
- Both fail. Hard work and idleness alike bring their share of distress. The wrongs of this chapter are not put right until Christ returns.
- The wind. Two handfuls belong to a heart that thirsts for what it lacks. It runs from one thing to the next and finds no rest.
- The handful. A handful is enough when godliness comes first and contentment grows from it. We entered with nothing and will leave with nothing.
- The quiet. The thankful, quiet soul is the wise one. That quietness under strain is what makes others ready to listen.
And I returned and saw vanity under the sun.
The Preacher turns his eye back on the world a second time and finds one more empty thing in it: a man who has piled up wealth and has nobody to share it with. This verse raises three questions: what "vanity" means, why he keeps saying "under the sun," and where such a life ends.
The phrase "under the sun" fixes what the Preacher is looking at. This is not heaven's view. It is what a man can see from ground level.
The second word we notice is "under the sun." This expression is found twenty-nine times in this book. Now what is "under the sun" is on the earth. There is, of course, something above the sun — that is heaven, the heavenly things. So Ecclesiastes deals with earthly things, with what man does apart from God — that is, the natural man. The book is in the Holy Scriptures for one purpose: to show the natural man the hollowness and vanity of everything under the sun, and so to move him to seek and find what is better, what is above the sun.
What does "vanity" mean? It names something real that is gone almost as soon as you hold it. And the man who said it was no bitter failure.
If these were the words of a disappointed man, whose hopes had been cruelly crushed… no one could wonder at such an opening. But these are the words of the most prosperous man, humanly speaking, the world has ever seen. "Vanity of vanities" — a mere breath, a vapour passing over the earth, short-lived in its existence. Such is the recorded experience of the son of David, king in Jerusalem, and that not of some things but of all.
Verse 7 turns the chapter to a new subject.
The vanity of selfishness comes into view from verse 7, and the value of fellowship from verse 9. The king is not exempt from it, especially as he may be foolish and the people fickle (verses 13-16). Vanity and frustration reign everywhere.
The next verse fills in the picture. He has everything except a person, and the wanting never stops.
Here is another vanity. Some are misers, heaping up riches and treasures beyond counting. He has no relations, no children, no brother; even companionship and friendship are unknown to him. He lives his solitary life. His ambition is to labour and gather riches, but his eyes are never satisfied with riches; he wants more and more all the time.
The unsatisfied eye of verse 8 has a name elsewhere in Scripture, and it costs other people something.
In the Scriptures, the evil eye often keeps close company with covetousness, selfishness and envious jealousy. It ignores the sufferings of others whenever ignoring them brings personal gain. The Lord warned the people of Israel about the evil eye. They must not turn it on a poor brother in need, or hold back the help owed to him. Scripture counsels men to avoid a stingy spirit and to cultivate the generous eye that gives freely to the needy.
The verses after verse 8 answer the lonely man. They give him a second — and being someone's second has a cost.
The other side is basically the thought of help, support, fellowship. The key text here is Ecclesiastes 4, where two are better than one. That thought belongs naturally to the number two, for we speak of "seconding" in the sense of "assisting." I may add that it also involves the thought of taking a lower place in doing so.
The chapter names wrongs that no one on earth puts right. Yet it does not end in despair.
Ecclesiastes 4 voices the deep sorrow caused by the crying injustice of a sinful world. Its wrongs are never put right, and they make up the history of our race… Work and idleness alike bring their share of distress. Still, in this quicksand where there is nowhere to stand, we see the thought of God arise, giving a firm foundation to heart and mind.
The full remedy waits on His return.
The state of man and the world will never be a joy to the glory of God until He comes again, and comes in power to reign. He first came to glorify God in obedience and in suffering for sin, and so to lay the foundation for blessing in righteousness for ever.
- Look — "Under the sun" is the book's viewpoint: the earth, and what man does apart from God.
- Vanity — The word means a breath, a vapour, soon gone. This is the verdict of the most prosperous of men, not of a disappointed one.
- Selfishness — From verse 7 the Preacher shows the emptiness of living for self. From verse 9 he sets fellowship against it.
- Eye — The lonely man has no son, no brother, no friend, and riches never fill his eye. The eye that never has enough is the eye that overlooks the poor.
- Second — What he lacks is a second: someone to help and lift him. Being that second means taking the lower place. Only Christ's return sets the whole scene right.