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"heart". The object of this thorough search was "concerning all things which are done
under heaven", which in turn is further described as:--
"This sore travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith."
The object is the things "done" under heaven. Verse 14 tells us that Koheleth had
seen all the works that are done under the sun, and they were all vanity and vexation of
spirit. It is the same sentiment and the same word, rendered "wrought", that we read in
2: 17. Among the things "done" we never include the "oppressions" that abound on
every hand (4: 1-3). But to limit our observations within handy compass we note the
many things "done" in this practical experiment, as indicated in chapter 2: Each
reference is to the same original word:--
"Till I might see what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under
heaven" (3).
"I made me gardens and orchards" (5).
"I made me pools of water" (6).
"I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as
musical instruments, and that of all sorts" (8).
"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I
had laboured to do" (11).
"What can the man do that cometh after the King? even that which had already been
done" (12).
"The work that is wrought under the sun is very grievous to me" (17).
Here is an array of doings, the result--"very grievous". In our "text" the things done
are defined as "sore travail". This is an expression which we meet several times through
the book. The question is asked, "What hath man of all his labour?" The answer is:--
"All his days are sorrows, and his travail grief" (2: 23).
"He giveth (to the sinner) travail (namely) to gather and to heap up, that he may give
to him that is good before God" (2: 26).
"I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it"
(3: 10).
"There is one alone.......he hath neither child nor brother: yet there is no end of all his
labour; .......this is also vanity yea, it is a sore travail" (4: 8).
"A dream cometh through the multitude of business (travail)" (5: 3).
"Riches perish by an evil travail" (5: 14).
"The business (travail) that is done upon the earth" (8: 16).
These references show that the "things done" by the sons of men, those things which
constitute "business", are a "sore travail". Sorrow and grief, heaping up for another,
whether the good before God, or for someone else because one has neither child nor
brother, disturbing one's very sleep so that the daily business demands the activity of the
restless brain at night, the transient character of these hard-earned riches, and the baffling
mystery of it all--these constitute one of the causes for vanity and vexation of spirit.
There is, however, in all these intricacies the redeeming feature of a purpose. This sore
travail is given to the sons of men "to be EXERCISED therewith". So fundamentally
true is this, that the same Hebrew word that gives us "travail" gives us "exercise". This
word comes in many passages Scripture, e.g.:--