Ecclesiastes 2:26
Good News Translation
God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who please him, but he makes sinners work, earning and saving, so that what they get can be given to those who please him. It is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.

New Revised Standard Version
For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Contemporary English Version
If we please God, he will make us wise, understanding, and happy. But if we sin, God will make us struggle for a living, then he will give all we own to someone who pleases him. This makes no more sense than chasing the wind.

New American Bible
For to the one who pleases God, he gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the one who displeases, God gives the task of gathering possessions for the one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.

Douay-Rheims Bible
God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.

in his sight

Genesis 7:1 And the Lord said to him: Go in, thou and all thy house, into the ark: for thee I have seen just before me in this generation.

Luke 1:6 And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame.

wisdom

2 Chronicles 31:20,21 So Ezechias did all things which we have said in all Juda, and wrought that which was good, and right, and truth, before the Lord his God, . . .

Proverbs 3:13-18 The purchasing thereof is better than the merchandise of silver, and her fruit than the chief and purest gold: . . .

Isaiah 3:10,11 Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings. . . .

John 16:24 Hitherto, you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full.

Romans 14:17,18 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink: but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. . . .

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.

to the sinner

Job 27:16,17 If he shall heap together silver as earth, and prepare raiment as clay, . . .

Proverbs 13:22 The good man leaveth heirs, sons, and grandsons: and the substance of the sinner is kept for the just.

Proverbs 28:8 He that heapeth together riches by usury and loan, gathereth them for him that will be bountiful to the poor.

Context
The Futility of Work
25Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I? 26God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.
Cross References
Job 27:16
If he shall heap together silver as earth, and prepare raiment as clay,

Job 27:17
He shall prepare indeed, but the just man shall be clothed with it: and the innocent shall divide the silver.

Job 32:8
But, as I see, there is a spirit in men, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding.

Job 38:36
Who hath put wisdom in the heart of man? or who gave the cock understanding?

Psalm 39:6
Surely man passeth as an image: yea, and he is disquieted in vain. He storeth up: and he knoweth not for whom he shall gather these things.

Psalm 51:6
For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.

Proverbs 2:6
He wilt keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity,

Proverbs 13:22
The good man leaveth heirs, sons, and grandsons: and the substance of the sinner is kept for the just.

Ecclesiastes 1:13
And I proposed in my mind to seek and search out wisely concerning all things that are done under the sun. This painful occupation hath God given to the children of men, to be exercised therein.

Ecclesiastes 1:14
I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 2:25
Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?

Ecclesiastes 3:10
I have seen the trouble, which God hath given the sons of men to be exercised in it.

Ecclesiastes 2:25
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