Ecclesiastes 2:26 · Bible study
Ecclesiastes 2:26 Commentary: God Gives Wisdom, Knowledge, and Joy, Yet Vanity Remains
Hebrew · 9 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Ecclesiastes 2:26 reveals a moral order: God gives wisdom, knowledge, joy to the godly, but the sinner's labor ends up benefiting the godly.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please Him, while sinners toil only to pass their gains to the godly, yet even this divinely ordered outcome is called futile from an earthly perspective.
- Key words: chokhmah (wisdom), da'at (knowledge), simchah (joy), ‘inyan (travail/task), asaph/kanas (gather/heap up), hevel (vanity).
- Main debate: Does the concluding “this also is vanity” refer only to the sinner’s toil, or also to the joy given to the godly? Commentators divide; the first reading limits the vanity, the second sees it as encompassing all earthly outcomes.
- Theological theme: Divine sovereignty in the distribution of both temporal blessings and hardships; the inadequacy of any earthly reward to bring final satisfaction.
- Best use: Comfort for believers who find their work small and unappreciated, and a sobering reminder to those who accumulate wealth without regard for God.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
WEB World English Bible 2000
For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
KJV King James Version 1769
For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
For to the man that pleaseth him God giveth wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that pleaseth God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
For to a man who is good before Him, He hath given wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; and to a sinner He hath given travail, to gather and to heap up, to give to the good before God. Even this is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
For he giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he giveth travail to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good in God's sight. This also is vanity and pursuit of the wind.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Porque al hombre que le agrada, Dios le da sabiduría y ciencia y gozo: mas al pecador da trabajo, el que allegue y amontone, para que dé al que agrada á Dios. También esto es vanidad y aflicción de espíritu.
Porque ao homem bom perante sua face, Deus dá sabedoria, conhecimento e alegria; porém ao pecador ele dá trabalho cansativo, para juntar e recolher, para o dar ao bom diante da sua face; também isto é fútil como perseguir o vento.
Car il donne à l’ homme qui lui est agréable la sagesse, la science et la joie; mais il donne au pécheur le soin de recueillir et d’ amasser, afin de donner à celui qui est agréable à Dieu. C’ est encore là une vanité et la poursuite du vent.
Denn dem Menschen, der ihm gefällt, gibt er Weisheit, Vernunft und Freude; aber dem Sünder gibt er Mühe, daß er sammle und häufe, und es doch dem gegeben werde, der Gott gefällt. Darum ist das auch eitel und Haschen nach dem Wind.
Want Hij geeft wijsheid, en wetenschap, en vreugde den mens, die goed is voor Zijn aangezicht; maar den zondaar geeft Hij bezigheid om te verzamelen en te vergaderen, opdat Hij het geve dien, die goed is voor Gods aangezicht. Dit is ook ijdelheid en kwelling des geestes.
Poiché Iddio dà all’uomo ch’egli gradisce, sapienza, intelligenza e gioia; ma al peccatore dà la cura di raccogliere, d’accumulare, per lasciar poi tutto a colui ch’è gradito agli occhi di Dio. Anche questo è vanità e un correre dietro al vento.
Bo człowiekowi, który mu się podoba, daje mądrość, umiejętność, i wesele; ale grzesznikowi daje frasunek, aby zbierał i zgromadzał, coby zostawił temu, który się podoba Bogu. I toć jest marność, a utrapienie ducha.
Ибо человеку, который добр пред лицем Его, Он дает мудрость и знание и радость; а грешнику дает заботу собирать и копить, чтобы после отдать доброму пред лицем Божиим. И это - суета и томление духа!
神喜悅 誰，就給誰 智慧、知識，和喜樂；惟有罪人， 神使 他勞苦，叫他將所收聚的、所堆積的 歸給 神 所喜悅的人。這 也 是虛空，也是捕 風。
To the man with whom he is pleased, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of getting goods together and storing up wealth, to give to him in whom God has pleasure. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Ecclesiastes 2:26
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that this verse describes a moral order in which God distributes blessings and burdens according to a person’s standing before Him. The man who pleases God receives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, gifts the Preacher had earlier denied to the wise (Ecc 1:18). The sinner receives “travail” (‘inyan), a tiresome task of gathering and heaping up that ultimately passes to the godly. This pattern echoes Proverbs 13:22 and Job 27:16, 17.
Yet a tension emerges. The Cambridge Bible notes that the Preacher “practically confesses that the life of the pleasure-seeker … was not good before God,” so the verse marks a step forward. But the same commentator observes that the concluding “this also is vanity” may apply to the godly’s joy as well, reflecting the book’s honest pessimism. Keil and Delitzsch argue that the vanity refers only to the sinner’s futile labour: “the purpose and the issue lie far apart.” Others, like Matthew Henry, see the entire earthly arrangement as ultimately unsatisfying, even for the godly. The shared point: a divinely ordered justice under the sun does not yield final meaning apart from God Himself.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Travail-only view: The vanity clause refers solely to the sinner’s futile labour of gathering and heaping up, since the immediate context is the sinner’s toil, and the godly’s joy is presented positively (Keil & Delitzsch, Cambridge Bible).
- Whole-arrangement view: The vanity applies to both the sinner’s travail and the godly’s joy, because the Preacher consistently calls every human outcome ‘vanity’ when viewed from an ‘under the sun’ perspective (Matthew Henry, many modern interpreters).
What is clear: God is the source of both the gifts given to the godly and the task assigned to the sinner; He sovereignly directs the outcomes of human labour.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of “good in His sight” | The phrase describes someone who stands in a right relationship with God, approved by Him. | Catholic and Orthodox traditions often include the role of grace and cooperation; Reformed traditions emphasize imputed righteousness through faith; Wesleyan traditions highlight sanctifying grace that makes one truly good. |
| Scope of the vanity clause | The clause “this also is vanity” applies to some aspect of the human condition described here. | Some commentators (Keil & Delitzsch, Cambridge Bible) limit it to the sinner’s futile heaping up; others (Matthew Henry, many modern interpreters) include the godly’s joy as also insufficient for ultimate meaning, given the “under the sun” perspective. |
| Nature of the gifts (wisdom, knowledge, joy) | These are divine gifts, not human achievements; they come from God’s hand. | Whether the gifts are primarily spiritual (saving wisdom, knowledge of God, joy in the Holy Spirit) or also temporal (skill in life, contentment with earthly goods). Gill and Clarke lean spiritual; Cambridge and JFB see a mix. |
| Immediate vs. future retribution | God’s justice eventually redistributes the sinner’s gain to the godly. | Some see this as fully realized in the Old Testament theocracy (JFB), others as a general principle that may be fulfilled in this life or the next (various traditions). |
Historical & Cultural Context
Ecclesiastes 2 sits inside the Preacher’s extended experiment: he tested pleasure, great works, possessions, and wisdom, only to pronounce each “vanity.” By verse 24, he concluded that enjoyment in labour is itself a gift from God. Verse 26 deepens that claim with a moral sharpening: not everyone receives the gift; it depends on being “good in his sight.”
The phrase “good in his sight” (tov lefanav) recurs in the Old Testament for those who walk uprightly before God, such as Noah (Gen 7:1) and Hezekiah (2 Chr 31:20, 21). The Hebrew preposition lifnei (“before the face of”) signals a relational standing: the person’s goodness is not self-claimed but acknowledged by God. The sinner (chote), by contrast, is one who misses the mark, living without regard for God’s presence.
The verse arises within Israel’s wisdom tradition, where retribution was often visible in this life, righteousness brought blessing, sin brought loss. The Cambridge Bible calls this “the moral government of God.” Jamieson-Fausset-Brown notes that though the retribution may not be as immediate now as in the theocracy, it is no less real. The Preacher, however, does not stop at that neat equation. He adds “this also is vanity,” pressing the reader to ask whether any earthly portion, even a divinely given one, can satisfy the human heart.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Ecclesiastes 2:26. The verse is textually stable across Hebrew manuscripts and early versions. The Cambridge Bible observes that the word “God” does not appear in the Hebrew text but is clearly implied; the KJV supplies it in italics. This does not affect the meaning.
Reception History
Ecclesiastes 2:26 has been read across Christian traditions as a key text on divine sovereignty and human satisfaction. In the early church, it was cited to support the goodness of creation received with thanksgiving, and to warn against hoarding wealth. Medieval commentators, including Thomas Aquinas, used it to discuss the difference between earthly and eternal joy. During the Reformation, both Lutheran and Reformed writers saw in it a clear statement that even the believer’s joy is a gift, not a human achievement, and that God’s justice ultimately sets things right. In modern times, the verse is often preached to encourage contentment and to challenge the idolatry of work and wealth. Its final note of “vanity” has also made it a touchstone for Christian realism about life under the sun.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- What the godly receive: Wisdom, knowledge, and joy are gifts from God, not human achievements. The one who pleases God receives capacity to use life’s goods with gratitude.
- What the sinner endures: The sinner labours to gather and heap up, but his work will end up in the hands of the godly. His toil is purposeful only from God’s side.
- Why it is still vanity: Even this just arrangement leaves the Preacher unsatisfied. Under the sun, every human outcome, blessed or cursed, falls short of eternal meaning.
Five-point outline
- God is the source of every good gift (wisdom, knowledge, joy).
- Pleasing God is the condition for receiving those gifts with a glad heart.
- The sinner’s work is a burden, and its fruit is handed over to someone else.
- God sovereignly redirects the fruits of human labour to accomplish His purposes.
- Yet none of this, from an earthly perspective, delivers lasting satisfaction, the Preacher still says “vanity.”
Illustration hooks
- A person who spends decades building a business, only to have it sold off by heirs who have no interest in the founder’s values.
- A family member who resents the success of a more faithful relative, not realising that their own laborious accumulation paved the way.
- The experience of receiving an unexpected inheritance or gift, and the quiet recognition that it came from someone else’s years of difficult work.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Why do people who ignore God often seem to prosper, while faithful people struggle?
- How can I find genuine joy in my daily work if even the godly’s joy is called vanity?
- Does this verse mean I should not plan or save for the future?
Leading a Discussion
This verse comes as a turning point in Ecclesiastes 2. The Preacher has tried everything, pleasure, wealth, wisdom, and found it all empty. Now he sees a moral pattern: God gives joy to those who please Him, and gives pointless toil to sinners. Yet even that pattern doesn’t satisfy him. As a group, work through the text and its deeper questions.
Discussion questions
- Read Ecclesiastes 2:24, 26. What does the Preacher say about enjoyment in labour? Who makes it possible?
- The phrase “good in His sight” appears twice. What does it mean to be good before God? How does this differ from being good in human eyes?
- In verse 26, God gives three things to the godly: wisdom, knowledge, joy. How are these different from the things the Preacher pursued earlier in the chapter?
- What does the Hebrew word ‘inyan (travail, task) suggest about the sinner’s work? Is it productive or futile?
- Why does the Preacher still call this arrangement “vanity and a chasing after wind”? What does this say about the limits of even a just life under the sun?
- How does this verse challenge our culture’s belief that hard work always earns lasting reward?
- In what concrete ways can you ask God for the gift of joy in your own work this week?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Genesis 7:1 | Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. |
| II Chronicles 31:20 | Hezekiah did so throughout all Judah; and he did that which was good, right, and faithful before Yahweh his God. |
| II Chronicles 31:21 | In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered. |
| Job 27:16 | Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay; |
| Job 27:17 | he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver. |
| Job 32:8 | But there is a spirit in man, and the Spirit of the Almighty gives them understanding. |
| Proverbs 3:13 | Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gets understanding. |
| Proverbs 3:18 | She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Happy is everyone who retains her. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke notes that the Hebrew phrase meaning without Him appears in other ancient versions and that he believes this version is correct. He says no one can truly enjoy life’s comforts without God’s blessing.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Christians who hold the view that God controls life’s happiness see it based on a person’s character rather than their wealth or status. Those who live righteously find enough in what they have, while sinners’ hard work often ends up helping others.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note draws a sharp contrast: God grants wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those He favors, but assigns the sinner the pointless labor of gathering wealth only to hand it over to the righteous. This reversal, the commentator observes, is itself meaningless and frustrating.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill emphasizes that no one is naturally good—only those made good by God's grace, with transformed hearts and faith in Christ. Such a person receives spiritual wisdom, knowledge, and joy from God. Meanwhile, the sinner toils endlessly to accumulate wealth, only for it to pass to the righteous, which adds to the sinner's frustration and emptiness.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
Some read this passage as describing a time when God punished people right away in a Jewish theocracy; others understand it as pointing to deeper spiritual realities. Christians who hold the former view note that punishment was visible then but still happens now even if not seen instantly.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil and Delitzsch insist that when God gives wisdom and joy to one person and to another only the weary work of gathering, He is not acting arbitrarily. The "good before Him" is truly good, and the sinner is truly sinful. God's gifts match real moral character, not a divine whim.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange emphasizes that Solomon tested pleasure and possessions as a deliberate experiment, retaining his wisdom throughout. The preacher’s final point is not that reckless indulgence is good, but that the ability to thankfully enjoy God’s gifts comes only from God’s hand to those who please him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry notes that good people receive wisdom knowledge and joy from God while sinners must work hard to gather things for those who are good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley draws a sharp contrast between two kinds of people: those given wisdom to enjoy comforts with a thankful, contented mind, and those given up to insatiable desires and exhausting labor, who only heap up wealth for others—especially the virtuous—to inherit.