“There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.”
The rhetorical questions to the solitary laborer—who is he working for? Who does he deprive? Is this worthwhile?—express indignation at the futility of endless accumulation for no purpose. The description of never resting, never satisfying desire, suggests that the drive to accumulate can become compulsive, consuming all life without yielding satisfaction. The verse implies that such labor violates both natural human need for rest and the proper purpose of possessions as means to human flourishing.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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