13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man [¹]to be exercised therewith.
[¹] Or, to afflict them.
and I took the greatest pains to seek out and to investigate by means of wisdom everything that is done within the limits of this world; how it is a painful uncertainty appointed of God to the human race that they should be distracted with it.
(13.) And I set my heart (gave great pains to, or thought much on, see [i. 17], [vii. 21], [viii. 9], 10; Daniel x. 12; 1 Chronicles xxii. 19) to inquiring (דרש, being used of something lost or hidden, Genesis xxv. 22, Deuteronomy xxii. 2) and to investigating (תור, refers to spying out or searching, Numbers xiii. 15, chapter vii. 25) in wisdom (the Authorized Version considers that wisdom was the means by which inquiry was made) concerning (על, over) all which (equivalent to ‘all that which’) is done (but being niphal it has an objective sense, and includes what is suffered) under the heavens (this formula occurs chapter ii. 3, and iii. 1, and is of larger import than under the sun) it is (‘I mean that’ is the equivalent expression in English) uncertainty (ענין, this is another technical word, it occurs eight times, chapter i. 13, ii. 23, 26, iii. 10, iv. 8, v. 3 (4), viii. 16, and a careful comparison of places will show that the meaning is ‘uncertainty,’ accompanied with ‘anxiety’ as to what is to happen in the future) which is an evil (for it is without the article) given of God (without the article; because God is here used personally, it is nominative to נתן of course, but as the nominative follows the verb, this is the best way of rendering in this case) to the sons of the Adam (the ‘whole human race’ is the meaning of this form), that they may be made anxious (LXX. τοῦ περισπᾶσθαι) therewith (emphatic).
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
I perceived with respect to all the actions whatsoever, in so far as they are performed within this work-day world, that they are certainly all of them (1.) evanescent, (2.) a vexation of spirit,