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.
There is one [alone] and without a second; also he hath neither son nor brother yet is there no end of all his labour, neither is his eye satisfied with riches, and [he saith not], For whom then am I labouring, and depriving my soul of good? This also is vanity and a grievous occupation.
The Preacher describes a quiet tragedy. Here is a man with no family and no companion. He works without pause and never has enough. His own question is left hanging — who is all this for? The rest of the chapter answers it, but not in the direction he was looking.
This verse sits in a short run about selfishness. The answer to it starts one verse later:
Verse 7 onwards shows the vanity of selfishness, and verse 9 onwards shows the value of fellowship. Not even the king escapes this, especially as he may be foolish and the people fickle (verses 13-16). Vanity and frustration reign everywhere.
The details pile up: no other person, no son, no brother. He is cut off from everyone, and he keeps good things from himself while he gathers more:
Here is another vanity. Some are misers, piling up untold riches and treasures. 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 labor and gather riches, but his eyes are never satisfied with riches; he wants more and more all the time. This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
The verse puts the problem in the eye, not in the size of the fortune. So more riches never close the gap, and the answer must come from outside what the eye can see:
Elsewhere we read, "the eye is not satisfied with seeing." Covetousness seems to be woken again and again by what the eye sees. It takes stern self-judgment to hold back this natural impulse of our hearts. It is a disease of all mankind... man's eyes feed on all they can see, with never a satisfying, living, vital result. All is transient and vain. How far above and beyond all this is the blessed revelation of God in the Person of His Son! About this revelation the child of God can say with a full heart: "As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with Your likeness."
Scripture has a name for such an eye. This verse stands beside passages that show what it costs a needy person nearby:
In the Scriptures, the evil eye is often seen as a close companion of covetousness, selfishness and envious jealousy. The evil eye ignores the sufferings of others if it can secure personal gain that way. The Lord warned the people of Israel against having an evil eye towards a poor brother in need, and against holding back the help they owed him (Deut. 15:7-9; Deut. 28:54-55). Men were told to avoid a stingy spirit and to grow the generous eye that gives freely to the needy (Prov. 22:9). The eye is never satisfied with riches. The man who rushes to be rich and has an evil eye is warned that poverty will come upon him (Prov. 28:22; Ecc. 4:8).
The man is one person with no other beside him. The next verses show what a second person would have been to him:
The other side is the thought of help, confirmation, fellowship. The basic text here is Ecclesiastes 4 — "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil..." That thought belongs to the number itself. We speak of "seconding" someone, meaning "assisting" them. I may add that it also carries the thought of taking a lower place in order to do so.
His question — "For whom am I toiling?" — has no answer inside his own world. The book leaves one door open, and behind it is a Person:
In this book I see one way, and one only, open to us as an escape from a universal vanity and from the sense of it. We have no other option... 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 in the simplicity of such relief from such heavy and grievous conditions.
- No second. His poverty is not money but company — no son, no brother, no one beside him. The verse names his isolation before it mentions his toil.
- No limit. He is a miser. His ambition is to gather, and he wants more and more all the time.
- No satisfaction. What the eye sees wakes covetousness, and the eye is never satisfied. Only the sight of God's face gives the satisfaction the eye keeps chasing.
- No neighbour. Scripture calls this an evil eye. It ignores the suffering of others when personal gain is at stake, and it ends in poverty.
- A second given. Two are better than one: help, confirmation, fellowship. Behind that, living to Jesus is the one way out of a life of vanity.