Matthew Poole and continuators on Ecclesiastes 1:14

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

i. e. Diligently observed, and in great measure understood.

For it was a great surprise to me, and therefore may seem strange to you.

And not only unsatisfying, but also troublesom, and an affliction or breaking to a mans spirit or mind. Or, as others, both ancient and modern Translators, render it, a feeding upon wind, as these very words, save only that there is the verb from which this noun seems most probably deduced, are rendred, Hos. 12. 1. where also it signifies a fruitless or lost labour, and a disappointment of their hopes and desires of satisfaction. And so this is arepetition of the same thing in other words, according to the manner of these Books.