Ecclesiastes Chapter Two, Anger Turns To Despair

Ecclesiastes 2:20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. [21] For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

The preacher is focusing on inheritance, succession, and generational dissonance. By generational dissonance, I simply mean the disconnect one generation feels when viewing the younger generation destined to succeed them. This has been the preacher’s line of thought since Ecclesiastes 2:12.

First the preacher hated life and work, and now he despairs. He despairs of all the labor he once rejoiced in. There was happiness in the wonder of accomplishment. He created marvels of architecture, agriculture, and art. It pleased him to turn time and energy into a tangible outcome, and the result itself was joyful. But time permits reflection, and wisdom brings with it a certain sorrow as one contemplates perhaps more than one ought to, Ecclesiastes 1:18. He invariably considers his heir and the future of all he has accomplished and sees in it a certain futility; he created and gained, and another will reap the benefits of his enterprising wisdom; and who knows what such a man will do once he has entered into another’s exploits? How many family businesses have been run aground by heirs incapable or unwilling to rise to the challenge of the responsibility handed to them? One may say that in such cases they did not earn it, it was a classical case of nepotism, whereas other men who worked closely with the older CEO or president would have made a sounder choice in terms of taking over.

It is interesting that the preacher does not think about Rehoboam or future heirs as his sons, but independent men in this instance who will claim what he has not earned, and then do who knows what with such a legacy when the man who created said legacy is no more.

The preacher opines that he employed wisdom, knowledge, and skill crafting the kingdom of Israel to its present, glorious state. Oxford defines wisdom as, “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.” Of knowledge, Oxford defines it as, “information and skills gained through experience or education.” Finally, skill is defined, “the ability to do something well.” It is of interest that the word, “skill” hails from the Old Norse, simply meaning ‘knowledge.’ These three items: wisdom, knowledge, and skill, appear interrelated. One acquires knowledge through study and experience, which breeds skill in a particular field of study, and wisdom in its application. The preacher was a man of manifold skills and wisdom. He laments to see not only his own empire endangered, but any man with such requisites, bending these traits in his labor, only for his labor to pass on to another that did not earn it. He declares that not only is this notion folly, but a “great evil.” The Hebrew term “evil,” is “ra,” and means morally bad or wicked. Strong’s Concordance goes on to state that “ra,” “combines together in one the wicked deed and its consequences.”

The moral implication is one of fairness for the laborer, who struggled toward something he must, by virtue of death, now surrender. And also the inheritor who receives something unfairly by virtue of the fact that the progenitor is forced to surrender it through death. There may well be an utter lack of understanding or appreciation for the accomplishments of one’s forebears, as well as an overestimation of one’s own talent and wisdom by inheriting something that catapults one into wealth or prestige by virtue of another’s merit. Can one really appreciate the gravity of what has gone into something they have simply been handed to by rite of succession? They are their own man, after all. Again, one need only look at the parade of American presidents to see how one administration gives way to the next, which many times begins to undo the policies of the country’s former head.