Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
Parallel Translations
-
Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
-
And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
-
And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet will he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Ecclesiastes 2:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ecclesiastes 3:22 Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?
- James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
- 1 Kings 12:14-20 and spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” So the king didn’t listen to the people; for it was a thing brought about from Yahweh, that he might establish his word, which Yahweh spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. When all Israel saw that the king didn’t listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, “What portion have we in David? We don’t have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now see to your own house, David.” So Israel departed to their tents. But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam hurried to get himself up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against David’s house to this day. When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed David’s house, except for the tribe of Judah only.
- 1 Kings 14:25-28 In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house. He even took away all of it, including all the gold shields which Solomon had made. King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. It was so, that as often as the king went into Yahweh’s house, the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard room.
- 2 Chronicles 10:13-16 The king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam abandoned the counsel of the old men, and spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” So the king didn’t listen to the people; for it was brought about by God, that Yahweh might establish his word, which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. When all Israel saw that the king didn’t listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, “What portion do we have in David? We don’t have an inheritance in the son of Jesse! Every man to your tents, Israel! Now see to your own house, David.” So all Israel departed to their tents.
- 2 Chronicles 12:9-10 So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of Yahweh’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He took it all away. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made. King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house.
- Ecclesiastes 9:13 I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me.
- Luke 16:8 “His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light.
- James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Ecc 2:19 And who knoweth whether he shall be…
Ecc 2:19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise [man] or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This [is] also vanity.
Ver. 19. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man.] A friend or an enemy, an acquaintance or a mere stranger; riches oft change masters. How many by a just hand of God die childless! or else leave what they have to spendthrifts, that will spend it as merrily as ever their parents got it miserably! scatter with a fork, as it were, what they have wretchedly raked together. Our Henry II, some few hours before he died, saw a list of their names who conspired with the King of France, and Earl Richard, his son and successor, against him; and finding therein his son John - whom he had made Earl of Cornwall, Somerset, Nottingham, Derby, and Lancaster, and given him a vast estate - to be the first, he fell into a grievous passion, both cursing his sons, and the day wherein himself was born and in that distemperature departed the world, which so often himself had distempered. {a}
Read full note →
{a} Daniel’s History, 112.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain A fool; who will undo all that I have…
A fool; who will undo all that I have done, and turn the effects of my wisdom into instruments of his folly, and occasions of ruin. Some think he had such an opinion of Rehoboam.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise…
And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?.... The king that should be after him, as the Targum, that should be his successor and heir; and so whether he would make a good or bad use of what was left; whether he would keep and improve it, or squander it away; suggesting, that could he be sure he would be a wise man that should come into his labours, it would be some satisfaction to him that he had laboured, and such a man should have the benefit of it; but as it was a precarious thing what he would be, he could take no pleasure in reviewing his labours he was about to leave. Some think that Solomon here gives a hint of the suspicion he had, that his son Rehoboam, his successor and heir, would turn out a foolish man, as he did;
yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have showed myself wise, under the sun; be he what he will, all will come into his hands; and he will have the power of disposing of all at his pleasure; not only of enjoying it, but of changing and altering things; and perhaps greatly for the worse, if he does not entirely destroy what has been wrought with so much care and industry, toil and labour, wisdom and prudence; the thought of all which was afflicting and distressing: and therefore he adds,
Read full note →
This is also vanity; and shows there is no happiness in all that a man does, has, or enjoys; and this circumstance, before related, adds to his vexation and unhappiness.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Or a fool - Who will undo all that…
Or a fool - Who will undo all that I have done, and turn the effects of my wisdom into instruments of his folly. Some think he had such an opinion of Rehoboam.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 19. A wise man or a fool?] Alas!…
Verse 19. A wise man or a fool?] Alas! Solomon, the wisest of all men, made the worst use of his wisdom, had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, and yet left but one son behind him, to possess his estates and his throne, and that one was the silliest of fools!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Solicitous. We naturally desire to have our plans perfected.…
Solicitous. We naturally desire to have our plans perfected. Solomon had, perhaps, a presentiment of Roboam’s misconduct, Ecclesiasticus xlvii. 27.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 19. Who knoweth — The language of one evidently…
19. Who knoweth — The language of one evidently ignorant as to what the character of his heir will be — a wise man or a fool.
Yet shall he have rule — Even in States where laws of inheritance are reliable, men still contemplate with anxiety the fate of their properties in the hands of their heirs. Except in cases of entailment, grandsons are not sure of estates.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 19. who knoweth whether he shall be a wise…
19. who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man] We note in this rather the utterance of a generalized experience than, as some have thought, the special thought of the historical Solomon watching the growth of a character like Rehoboam. No man, whatever care he may take to entail his possessions, can secure an entail of character. And there is something irritating at times,—the writer seems to hint, almost maddening,—in the thought that whatever may be the character of the heir, he will have power to scatter in random waste what has been brought together, as with a purpose and a policy. Lands, libraries, galleries are all liable to be scattered and broken up. So in Psa_39:6 we have as the doom of the mammon-worshipper, “He heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.” So the sting of the message that comes to the Rich Fool of the parable is “Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” Luk_12:20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (19) Have rule.—The word occurs again in Ecc_6:2; Ecc_8:9;…
(19) Have rule.—The word occurs again in Ecc_6:2; Ecc_8:9; elsewhere only in Nehemiah and Esther. and in Psa_119:133.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man…
Who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? The bitter feeling that he has to leave the fruits of his lifelong labor to another is aggravated by the thought that he knows not the character of this successor, whether he will be worthy or not. As the psalmist says, "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them". (Psa_39:6) Again in the parable, "The things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?". (Luk_12:20; comp. Ecc 11:18, Ecc 11:19) Yet shall he have rule, etc. Whatever may be his character, he will have free use and control of all that I have gathered by my labor directed by prudence and wisdom. Vulgate, Domina-bitur in laboribus meis quibus desudavi et sollicitus fui.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 For who knows whether he will be a wise…
For who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?
The author uses this rhetorical question to emphasize that no one knows the character the man who will inherit his wealth. AT: "For no one knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool." (See: Rhetorical Question)
Read full note →
he will be
The word "he" refers to the author's heir.
under the sun
This refers to things that are done on earth. See how you translated this in Ecclesiastes 1:3. AT: "on the earth" (See: Idiom)
that my work and wisdom have built
Here the author's "work" and "wisdom" represent himself and the things he did in his wisdom. He probably had help with the literal buildings. AT: "that I worked very hard and wisely to build" (See: Metonymy)
vapor
The author speaks of useless and meaningless things as if they were mist. See how you translated this in Ecclesiastes 1:14. AT: "as useless as vapor" or "meaningless" (See: Metaphor)
my heart began to despair
Here the author refers to himself by his "heart" to emphasize his feelings. AT: "I began to despair" or "I began to lose all hope" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
know
wise
fool
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:19 Foolish, destructive successors are more of a threat…
2:19 Foolish, destructive successors are more of a threat to wise accomplishments than wise successors, but since the Teacher couldn’t tell what kind of successors he would have, his accomplishments were meaningless to him. Solomon’s immediate successor—his son Rehoboam—turned out to be foolish (see 1 Kgs 12:1-20).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.