Ecclesiastes 2:19, commentary and pictures

Ecclesiastes 2:19 belongs to Solomon's account of testing worldly pleasure, where his wealth, honor, power, and wisdom gave him the means to pursue carnal pleasures and every worldly desire. It reflects his giving himself to pleasure and to the enlargement of Jerusalem, a course bound up with worldly alliances that contributed to spiritual decline. The chapter teaches that greatness and happiness do not necessarily go together, so its reflection on human achievement serves as a check on pride. Worldly pleasure, gain, life, and achievement are vanity and vexation of spirit when pursued apart from God and without hope in him, a verdict on pursuing and possessing the things of this world.

No one can know whether the person who inherits the results of one's work will be a wise man or a fool, yet that successor will have rule over all the labor accomplished with wisdom and the wealth left behind. Toiling to accumulate wealth, labor, and possessions that must be left behind at death to such an unknown heir is vanity. The worker cannot control how the heir will use what was carefully gained, and the inheritance may bring no lasting good to its owner or to others.

The prospect of having to leave one's money can make people cling to it more tightly in old age, even though they cannot keep it. Worldly possessions cannot give the true riches or lasting security that come from a tranquil life of trust in God.