“I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:”
The creation of gardens and parks, places of beauty and sensory delight, represents the aesthetic and leisurely dimension of Qohelet's pursuits; yet these too will be subsumed under vanity. The specific mention of fruit trees and their irrigation suggests attention to the technical and laborious aspects of creating pleasure; even the cultivation of beauty requires relentless effort. This verse implies that the goods of creation—growth, beauty, nourishment—retain no intrinsic power to redeem existence from meaninglessness when pursued as ends in themselves.
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