TEXT [Commentary]

black diamond   5.   Grab all the gusto you can! (2:24-26)

24 So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?[*] 26 God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. This, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

NOTES

2:24 there is nothing better than. This formulaic statement communicates a note of resignation and occurs in three other places in the book (3:12, 22; 8:15).

than. Most translations, including the NLT, understand that there is a minor textual problem in this verse, and so the comparative idea (represented in the English “than”) must be restored to the text. It has dropped out of the Heb. text due to a very common textual error called haplography, where a letter occurring twice in a row was copied by a scribe only once. In this case, the one letter was a Mem, a common contraction of the Heb. comparative that should be supplied here. The detailed argument may be found in Delitzsch (1975:251).

2:26 sinner. The NLT and most translations (cf. NIV, NASB, KJV) understand the Heb. word khote’ [TH2398, ZH2627] here in its narrow theological sense, which is certainly possible. Some commentaries (see Longman 1998:109-110) take the word in its broader sense as “one who offends God.” This reading is argued for on the basis of the context and tone of the Teacher’s argument. It suggests that God plays favorites, according to the Teacher’s “under the sun” perspective on God.

COMMENTARY [Text]

This section is a concluding paragraph to the Teacher’s argument from 1:13–2:23. So far, the Teacher has looked at pleasure, wisdom, and work in the attempt to find the ultimate meaning of life. He has been disappointed with each and has concluded that everything is meaningless. In the present section, he asserts that under such conditions we ought to grab whatever pleasure comes our way. Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 is the first of six so-called carpe diem passages (the others are 3:12-14; 3:22; 5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-10). In other words, they encourage the reader to “seize [the pleasures] of the day.” They should be read with a tone of resignation. After all, the passage begins with “there is nothing better than . . .” In other words, this is the best that a person can hope for in this life that will end with death.

The joys that the Teacher specifies here are eating and drinking and work. These are areas (eating and drinking subsumed under pleasure) that the Teacher has already told us cannot sustain ultimate meaning, but they can create a diversion from the harsh reality of life (this point will be particularly developed in the carpe diem passage found in 5:18-20).[25]

In the interest of fairness, it should be pointed out that some scholars hold a different view on these carpe diem passages. Kaiser (1979:463-466) and Whybray (1982) both suggest that these passages really represent the Teacher’s ultimate conclusion and that we should read him as more orthodox than the present commentary is suggesting. However, as one continues in the book, one observes that the Teacher himself finds no peace in eating, drinking, or work. In the present passage (2:24), he admits that even these simple pleasures are God’s gift; but from his tone and what he says to follow, we are led to conclude that this is a gift that he himself did not receive. The fact that the carpe diem passage ends with another expression of the meaninglessness of life also supports the idea that his conclusion is a pessimistic one—not that one should enjoy the simple pleasures of life.