Focusing more narrowly than in the previous section, Qoheleth now struggles over the question about what will happen to all his wealth when he dies. He has moved on from the simple fact of death to ask what happens after that. He cannot take his “portion” or “reward” with him, so someone else will inherit it. In the previous verse it was noted that the phrase “I hated life” was an idiom for the intense pain caused by certain apparently unjust situations. We apply that same insight to the use here. When Qoheleth says I hated all my toil, he means that his years of labor and all he acquired as a result of that now cause him great pain. We can render its meaning as “I almost came to hate my work and accomplishments” or “I no longer took any pleasure in all the work I did.” The expression my toil in which I had toiled may emphasize the difficulty of the task or the effort with which Qoheleth worked. Some languages can express this in the following way: “I grew to hate all the things I had worked so hard at.”

The phrase under the sun or “on earth” does not need to be translated literally every time it occurs, though it is a prominent aspect of Qoheleth’s style.

Seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me: the introductory relative clause marker rendered as seeing in Revised Standard Version, or “because” in Good News Translation, indicates the reason why Qoheleth reacted so strongly to the situation mentioned in the first half of the verse. He does not feel badly about his work and his accomplishments; it would be a mistake to draw that conclusion. Rather the problem is that all his earnings will be inherited by someone who may well be a fool. It is expressed in Hebrew by the addition of a pronominal suffix on the verb translated leave. It refers to the fruits of his labor, so it can be expressed as “my wealth” or “my goods.” Translators will have to reflect on how ideas such as “leaving an inheritance” are expressed in their language. In some languages emphasis is put on the person who inherits or “eats” an inheritance, rather than on the one who “leaves” it.

The clause the man who will come after me is simply the person who will inherit his goods, that is, his heir, or what Good News Translation calls “my successor,” or “one who takes my place.”

Some ways we can translate verse 18 are as follows:

• I almost came to hate having toiled and accomplished so much, because I must leave all I have [or, all my wealth] to an heir.

• I became disillusioned about all the work I did, since I have to leave everything I worked so hard for to my successor.

Some languages may prefer to put the reason clause before the result:

• I realized that everything I worked so hard for will go to the one who follows me. This makes me almost want to give up!

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .