And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.

And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor; and this was my portion from all my labor.

And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared: and esteemed this my portion, to make use of my own labour.

And whatever my eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my portion of all my labor.

And all that mine eyes asked I kept not back from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labour, and this hath been my portion, from all my labour,

And nothing which was desired by my eyes did I keep from them; I did not keep any joy from my heart, because my heart took pleasure in all my work, and this was my reward.

And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart had joy of all my labour; and this was my portion from all my labour.

And all that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them. Neither did I prohibit my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and from amusing itself in the things that I had prepared. And I regarded this as my share, as if I were making use of my own labors.

Portion - A word of frequent occurrence. By it Solomon describes the pleasure found in the act of working and also perhaps the pleasure felt in the process of acquiring wisdom; this pleasure is admitted to be good, if received from God (Ecclesiastes 2:26; Ecclesiastes 5:18; compare 1-Timothy 4:4); but being transitory it is subject to vanity, and therefore does not afford a sufficient answer to the repeated question, "What profit etc.?" Ecclesiastes 1:3.

I withheld not my heart from any joy - He had every means of gratification; he could desire nothing that was not within his reach; and whatever he wished, he took care to possess.

And whatever my eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my (g) portion of all my labour.
(g) This was the fruit of all my labour, a certain pleasure mixed with care, which he calls vanity in the next verse.

And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them,.... Though this sense is only mentioned, all are designed; he denied himself of nothing that was agreeable to him, that was pleasing to the eye, to the ear, to the taste, or any other sense; he indulged himself in everything, observing a proper decorum, and keeping himself within the due bounds of sobriety and good sense;
I withheld not my heart from any joy: the Targum says, "from all joy of the law"; but it is to be understood of natural pleasure, and of the gratifications of the senses in a wise and moderate manner;
for my heart rejoiced in all my labours; he took all the pleasure that could be taken in the works he wrought for that purpose before enumerated;
and this was my portion of all my labour; pleasure was what he aimed at, and that he enjoyed; this was the fruit and issue of all his laborious works; the part allotted him, the inheritance he possessed, and the thing he sought after.

my labour--in procuring pleasures.
this--evanescent "joy" was my only "portion out of all my labor" (Ecclesiastes 3:22; Ecclesiastes 5:18; Ecclesiastes 9:9; 1-Kings 10:5).

Thus become great and also continuing wise, he was not only in a condition to procure for himself every enjoyment, but he also indulged himself in everything; all that his eyes desired, i.e., all that they saw, and after which they made him lust (Deuteronomy 14:26) (cf. 1-John 2:16), that he did not refuse to them (אצל, subtrahere), and he kept not back his heart from any kind of joy (מנע, with min of the thing refused, as at Numbers 24:11, etc., oftener with min, of him to whom it is refused, e.g., Genesis 30:2), for (here, after the foregoing negations, coinciding with immo) his heart had joy of all his work; and this, viz., this enjoyment in full measure, was his part of all his work. The palindromic form is like Ecclesiastes 1:6; Ecclesiastes 4:1. We say in Hebrews. as well as in German: to have joy in (an, ב), anything, joy over (ber, על) anything, or joy of (von, מן) anything; Koheleth here purposely uses min, for he wishes to express not that the work itself was to him an object and reason of joy, but that it became to him a well of joy (cf. Proverbs 5:18; 2-Chronicles 20:27). Falsely, Hahn and others: after my work (min, as e.g., Psalm 73:20), for thereby the causative connection is obliterated: min is the expression of the mediate cause, as the concluding sentence says: Joy was that which he had of all his work - this itself brought care and toil to him; joy, made possible to him thereby, was the share which came to him from it.

And - Whatsoever was grateful to my senses. Rejoiced - I had the comfort of all my labours, and was not hindered from the full enjoyment of them by sickness or war, or any other calamity. My portion - This present enjoyment of them, was all the benefit which I could expect from all my labours. So that I made the best of them.