Ecclesiastes 6:7

“All the labour of man [is] for his mouth, etc.] For the food of his mouth, as the Targum; for the sustenance of his body, for food and clothing, part being put for the whole: all that a man labours for is to get this; and if he does not enjoy it, his labour is in vain; meats are for the belly, which are taken in by the mouth, and for these a man labours; and if he does not eat them, when he has got them, he labours to no purpose; and yet the appetite is not filled; even the bodily or sensual appetite; no, not even by those who eat the fruit of their labour; for though their hunger is allayed for the present, and the appetite is satisfied for a while, yet it returns again, and requires more…”

“man--rather, "the man," namely, the miser (Ecc 6:3-6). For not all men labor for the mouth, that is, for selfish gratification. appetite--Hebrew, "the soul." The insatiability of the desire prevents that which is the only end proposed in toils, namely, self-gratification; "the man" thus gets no "good" out of his wealth (Ecc 6:3).”

“Connect these verses with Ecclesiastes 6:2-3 : “All labor is undertaken with a view to some profit, but as a rule the people who labor are never satisfied. What advantage then has he who labors if (being rich) he is wise, or if being poor he knows how to conduct himself properly; what advantage have such laborers above a fool? (None, so far as they are without contentment, for) a thing present before the eyes is preferable to a future which exists only in the desire.” Ecclesiastes 6:8 What - literally, what profit (as in Ecclesiastes 1:3). Knoweth ... living - i. e., “Knows how to conduct himself rightly among his contemporaries.” return to 'Top of Page'”

“Is - For meat. And yet - Men are insatiable in their desires, and restless in their endeavours after more, and never say, they have enough. Ecclesiastes 6:8”

“6:7 People never seem to be satisfied with what they have, no matter how much it is (cp. 5:10).”

“the labour: Gen 3:17-19; Pro 16:26; Mat 6:25; Joh 6:27; Ti1 6:6-8 appetite: Heb. soul, Ecc 6:3, Ecc 5:10; Luk 12:19 Ecclesiastes 6:8”

“"All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet his soul has never enough;" or, properly, it is not filled, so that it desires nothing further and nothing more; נמלא used as appropriately of the soul as of the ear, Ecc 1:8; for that the mouth and the soul are here placed opposite to one another as "organs of the purely sensual and therefore transitory enjoyment, and of the deeper and more spiritual and therefore more lasting kind of joys" (Zck.), is an assertion which brings out of the text what it wishes to be in it, - נפשׁ and פּה stand here so little in contrast, that, as at Pro 16:26; Isa 5:14; Isa 29:8, instead of the soul the stomach could also be named; for it is the soul longing,…”