Ecclesiastes 2:4

I made me great works,.... He did not spend his time in trifling things, as Domitian (a), in catching and killing flies; but in devising, designing, directing, and superintending great works of art

I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under

I made me great works; magnificent works for my honour and delight. I built me houses; of which see , &c.; , &c. I planted me vineyards: see .

Ecclesiastes 2:4 I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:Ver. 4. I made me great works.] I took not pleasure in trifles, as Domitian did, in catching and killing flies with his penknife; or as Artaxerxes did, in making hafts for knives; or as Solyman the great Turk did, in making notches of horn for bows; but I built stately houses, planted pleasant vineyards, &c. A godly man may be busied in mean, low things; but he is not satisfied in them as adequate objects: he trades for better commodities, and cannot rest without them. I builded me houses.] Curious and spacious, such as is the Turk’ s seraglio or palace, said to be more than two miles in compass. William Rufus built Westminster hall, and when it was done, found much fault with it for being built too little, saying, It was fitter for a chamber than for a hall for a king of England, and took a plot of land for one far more spacious to be added unto it. I planted me vineyards.] That no pleasant thing might be wanting to me. To plant a vineyard is a matter of much cost and care; but it soon quits cost by bearing (1.) Plenty of fruit in clusters and bunches, many grapes together; (2.) By bearing pleasant fruit, no fruit being more delectable to the taste than is the grape, nor more comfortable to the heart than is the wine made of the grape. Solomon had one gallant vineyard at Baalhamon that yielded him great profit. Daniel’ s History.

(4) Houses.—1 Kings 5:11; 2 Chronicles 8:4. Vineyards.—1 Chronicles 27:27; Son 8:11.

Verse 4. I builded me houses] Palace after palace; the house of the forest of Lebanon, 1Kg 7:1, c. a house for the queen; the temple, c., 2 Chronicles 8:1, c. 1Kg 9:10, &c., besides many other buildings of various kinds.

4. I made me great works] The verse may be either a retrospect of the details of the life of the pleasure-seeker as sketched in the previous verse, or, as seems more probable, the account of a new experiment in which the man passed from purely sensual pleasures to the life of what we know as ‘culture,’ the pursuit of beauty and magnificence in Art. Here the writer throws himself into the surroundings of the historical Solomon. We may venture to refer to Tennyson’s Palace of Art as tracing the working out of a like experiment to its inevitable issue. See Appendix II. I builded me houses] We think of David’s house of cedar (2 Chronicles 2:3) and the storehouses, oliveyards and vineyards (1 Chronicles 27:25-31) which Solomon had inherited, of his own palace, and the house of the forest of Lebanon and the house for Pharaoh’s daughter, which he built (1 Kings 7:1-9), of Tadmor and Hamath and Beth-horon and Baalath, the cities in far off lands which owned him as their founder (2 Chronicles 8:3-6). It is significant, on any theory of authorship, that we find no reference to Solomon’s work in building “the house of the Lord.” That was naturally outside the range of the experiments in search of happiness and too sacred to be mentioned in connexion with them here, either by the king himself or by the writer who personates him. On the assumption of personation the writer may have drawn his pictures of kingly state from the palaces and parks of the Ptolemies, including the botanical and zoological gardens connected with the Museum at Alexandria, or from those of the Persian kings at Susa or Persepolis. I planted me vineyards] Of these one, that of Baal-hamon, has been immortalised by its mention in the Song of Solomon (Ecclesiastes 8:11). It was planted with the choicest vine, and the value of its produce estimated at a thousand pieces of silver. Engedi seems also to have been famous for its vineyards (Song Son 1:14).

Compare 1 Kings 7:1-12; 1 Kings 9:15-19; 1 Kings 10:14-27; and 2 Chronicles 8:4.

4. I made me great works — Hebrew, I enlarged my works. Solomon used the resources of the kingdom in magnificent enterprises. His own palace stood on a neighbouring hilltop to the temple.