For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!
Solomon having tried what satisfaction was to be had in learning first, and then in the pleasures of sense, and having also put both together, here compares them one with another and passes a judgment upon them. I. He sets himself to consider both wisdom and folly.
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever,.... The Targum interprets it, in the world to come; but even in this world the remembrance of a wise man, any more than of a fool, does not always last; a wise man may not only be caressed in life, but may be remembered after death for a while; the...
remembrance--a great aim of the worldly (Gen 11:4). The righteous alone attain it (Psa 112:6; Pro 10:7). for ever--no perpetual memorial. that which now is--MAURER, "In the days to come all things shall be now long ago forgotten."