(15.) And I praised, I myself, with respect to (which the LXX. note by σὺν adverbial) the gladness (which is both generic and abstract, ‘I came, that is, to a strong conclusion as to the value of present happiness’), because there is no good to a man under the sun, except to eat, and to drink, and to rejoice, and that (emphatic) to abide with him in (or by means of) his toil during the days of his life (i.e. no other real good except this gratification immediately arising from the toil) which is a gift to him (emphatic) of Divine Providence (and so not the result of his labour, but a mercy for which he ought to thank God) under the sun (which is in this case reserved to the end of the sentence, and indeed the period, for the next clause is a summing up).
16 ¶ When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
Whence it results, that having set my heart to know wisdom, and to observe with regard to the uncertainty which is suffered upon earth (for indeed, by day and by night also, rest does no human eye behold)——
(16.) As then I have given with respect to my heart (with את) to the knowledge of wisdom, and to the appearances (וְלִרְאוֹת; this infinitive with וְ is peculiar to Ecclesiastes——occurs chapters iii. 18, v. 17, and here; see the peculiar shade of meaning given by the conjunction) with respect to the anxiety (see [chapter i. 13]; generic with את, of which, however, the LXX. take no special notice) which is done on earth (but we must write ‘endured upon earth’ to express the meaning, which amounts to this, ‘As, then, I have given my heart to the knowledge of wisdom, i.e. a scientific knowledge, with regard to the spectacle of that anxious uncertainty which is suffered on the earth’), for also by day and by night sleep (the Masorets with great taste put ‘sleep’ in a clausule by itself) with his eyes he is not seeing (i.e. this uncertainty is incessant).
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
so I perceive, with respect to the whole working of the Almighty, how impossible is it for humanity to discover the working out of anything with respect to what is done within this work-day world. Yet it is on account of this that man toils, that he may seek it out, but he does not discover it: and if he thinks wisdom will enable him to know it, it is not sufficient for the discovery either.