Ecclesiastes 2:18

“Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun, etc.] The great works he made, the houses he built; the vineyards, gardens, and orchards he planted, etc. what he got by his labour, his riches and wealth; and what he also got, not by the labour of his hands, but of his mind. Some understand this of the books he wrote; which were a weariness to his body, and fatigue to his mind; and which he might fear some persons would make an ill use of: Aben Ezra interprets it of his labour in this book. All which he had no great regard unto, since it was to be left to another; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me; because he could not enjoy the fruits of his labour…”

“One hope alone was left to the disappointed worldling, the perpetuation of his name and riches, laboriously gathered, through his successor. For selfishness is mostly at the root of worldly parents' alleged providence for their children. But now the remembrance of how he himself, the piously reared child of David, had disregarded his father's dying charge (Ch1 28:9), suggested the sad misgivings as to what Rehoboam, his son by an idolatrous Ammonitess, Naamah, should prove to be; a foreboding too fully realized (1Ki. 12:1-18; Kg1 14:21-31).”

“Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see Ecclesiastes 2:10 note) that accrues to man, is the pleasure felt Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 in receiving God’s gifts, and in working with and for them. Ecclesiastes 2:12 What can the man do ... - i. e., “What is any man - in this study of wisdom and folly - after…”

“All my labour - All these riches and buildings, and other fruits of my labour, were aggravations of my misery. Because - Because I must, and that everlastingly, leave them all behind me. Ecclesiastes 2:19”

“I hated: Ecc 2:4-9, Ecc 1:13, Ecc 4:3, Ecc 5:18, Ecc 9:9 taken: Heb. laboured I should: Ecc 2:26, Ecc 5:13, Ecc 5:14; Kg1 11:11-13; Psa 17:14, Psa 39:6, Psa 49:10; Luk 12:20, Luk 16:27, Luk 16:28; Act 20:29, Act 20:30; Co1 3:10 Ecclesiastes 2:19”

“"And I hated all my labour with which I laboured under the sun, that I should leave it to the man who shall be after me;" i.e., not: who shall come into existence after me, but: who shall occupy my place after me. The fiction discovers itself here in the expression: "The king," who would not thus express himself indefinitely and unsympathetically regarding his son and successor on the throne, is stripped of his historical individuality. The first and third שׁ are relat. pron. (quem, after the schema egymologicum עמל עמל, Ecc 2:11, Ecc 9:9, and qui), the second is relat. conj. (eo) quod. The suffix of שׁאן refers to the labour in the sense of that which is obtained by wearisome labour,…”