Experiment
The opening of Ecclesiastes presents a deliberate, sustained experiment. The Preacher, son of David and king in Jerusalem, sets out to test by his own wisdom whether anything done under the sun can yield lasting profit. The two opening chapters trace the design, the trial, and the verdict.
The Program of Inquiry
The Preacher first frames the project as a search: "And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven: it is an intense travail that God has given to the sons of man to be exercised with" (Ec 1:13). Wisdom itself becomes the first variable: "I communed with my own heart, saying, Look, I have gotten myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem; yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge" (Ec 1:16). The result is the same as for everything else: "And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also was a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow" (Ec 1:17-18).
Pleasure Tested
The trial then moves to pleasure: "I said in my heart, Come now, I will prove you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure: and, look, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, It is insane; and of mirth, What does it do?" (Ec 2:1-2). Wine becomes another controlled variable, with wisdom retained as guide: "I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding [me] with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of man that they should do under heaven all the days of their life" (Ec 2:3).
The Scale of the Trial
The experimenter's resources are deliberately enlarged so that nothing can be said to have been left untried: "I made myself great works; I built myself houses; I planted myself vineyards; I made myself gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit; I made myself pools of water, to water therefrom the forest where trees were reared; I bought male slaves and female slaves, and had slaves born in my house; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem; I gathered myself also silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got myself men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of man, many women" (Ec 2:4-8). The cumulative scale is given as a control: "So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I did not withhold my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor; and this was my portion from all my labor" (Ec 2:9-10). No appetite was withheld; wisdom remained.
The Verdict
The verdict, when the test concludes, is as flat as the design was elaborate: "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and, look, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun" (Ec 2:11). The closing line of chapter 1 had warned in advance that the inquiry was "an intense travail that God has given to the sons of man to be exercised with" (Ec 1:13), and the experiment confirms it: nothing under the sun yields the profit the Preacher was looking for.