For as the noise of thorns under the pot, So is the laughter of a fool, even this is vanity.

Like the cracking of thorns under a pot, so is the laugh of a foolish man; and this again is to no purpose.

For, like the crackling of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughter of the foolish. But this, too, is emptiness.

As the crackling of thorns - Noisy while it lasts, and quickly extinguished. See Psalm 58:9 note.

For as the crackling of thorns - They make a great noise, a great blaze; and are extinguished in a few moments. Such indeed, comparatively, are the joys of life; they are noisy, flashy, and transitory.

For as the crackling of (d) thorns under a pot, so [is] the laughter of the fool: this also [is] vanity.
(d) Which crackle for a while and profit nothing.

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool,.... As thorns are weak, useless, and unprofitable; yea, hurtful and pernicious, and only fit for burning; so are foolish and wicked men, 2-Samuel 23:6; and as the noise and sound of the one under a pot is very short, they make a blaze for a while, and is soon over; so though the laughter of a fool is loud and noisy, it makes no melody, no more than the noise of thorns; and is but for a moment, and will be soon changed for weeping and howling, which will last for ever; see Job 20:5;
this also is vanity; the carnal mirth of wicked men.

crackling--answers to the loud merriment of fools. It is the very fire consuming them which produces the seeming merry noise (Joel 2:5). Their light soon goes out in the black darkness. There is a paronomasia in the Hebrew, Sirim ("thorns"), Sir ("pot"). The wicked are often compared to "thorns" (2-Samuel 23:6; Nahum 1:10). Dried cow-dung was the common fuel in Palestine; its slowness in burning makes the quickness of a fire of thorns the more graphic, as an image of the sudden end of fools (Psalm 118:12).

Thorns - Which for a time make a great noise and blaze, but presently go out.