Ecclesiastes 2:7
I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:
This verse records one part of Solomon's deliberate experiment to find his highest good in earthly things, in pleasure and earthly greatness and sensual satisfaction, by getting servants and maidens, including servants born in his house, and great possessions of livestock. In that pursuit he kept back nothing that his eyes desired, withheld his heart from no joy, and rejoiced in his labor. His abundance of servants and livestock surpassed and exceeded that of all who had ruled or been in Jerusalem before him.
The acquisition marked his turning from the joy of divine communion to seek satisfaction apart from God, when the pride of prosperity separated him from God despite his favored life and God-given wisdom. It was like turning to broken cisterns away from the fountain of life. By bitter experience he learned the emptiness of such a life, that such labor and possessions were vanity and vexation of spirit, with no lasting profit or fulfillment under the sun. The emptiness left him with no rest to the soul, so that he hated life and hated all his labor.
In later years, wearied and thirsting, he returned to drink at the fountain of life. By inspiration he recorded the history of his wasted years as a lesson of warning for after-generations. Through the discipline of suffering his life-work was not wholly lost, even though his people reaped harvests of evil from his sowing.