21 For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.
because it amounts to this: man, even when he toils wisely, prudently, and successfully, does so for some individual who has not toiled at all, and gives it to him to possess: an instance of evanescence, and very evil.
(21.) For it is (this exists as the real state of the case) man (i.e. one specimen of humanity——this is what humanity is really doing) which he toils (= who is, or may be, labouring) with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with success (כשרון, occurs chapter ii. 21, iv. 4, v. 11, the root occurs Esther viii. 5, chapter xi. 6, x. 10; it is a technical word——a ‘successful issue’ is the meaning; compare the passages. The LXX. render by ἀνδρείᾳ, ‘bravery,’ which is not a bad rendering, since it appears from the above that this success was but temporary), and to a man who has not (emphatic; the contracted relative joined with the negative shows that his not doing this is the point) toiled (i.e. taken any trouble) in it (emphatic, = ‘in that same’) he will give it as his portion; also this is a vanity and an evil which is great. (There is a strange sarcastic tone given by the affix in the verb following the emphatic pronoun, ‘to one who has not toiled in it at all will he give that same.’)
22 For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
For what comes to a man through all his toil and vexing his heart, which he himself toils at within this work-day world?
(22.) For what is there (הוה, a peculiar form; but is it not possible that this word has been chosen for the sake of the equivoke? הַוָּה, ‘calamity,’ ‘perverseness,’ Job vi. 2, Micah vii. 3, and which makes most pungent and admirable sense) to a man in all his toil, and in vexing (רעיון, not רעות; compare chapter i. 18) his heart which he himself toils at under the sun?