For all his days are full of pain: the introductory particle offers a reason for the question in verse 22. It describes a situation Qoheleth has either witnessed or experienced. The introductory particle can be given as “For,” “When,” or even “Considering the fact that.”

All his days becomes “As long as you live” in Good News Translation, with the more general and impersonal use of the pronoun “you.” We have several alternatives here. We can use an impersonal pronoun if there is one, or a noun form, “a person.” However, before we translate the phrase we should consider other aspects of Qoheleth’s meaning. All his days according to Good News Translation indicates the duration of a person’s life. In fact the Hebrew expression can also mean “all day long” or “every day,” in which case the focus is on the daily experience rather than on the entire duration of life. Although this distinction may seem to be somewhat minor, it is actually significant here because it provides a contrast with the phrase “all night long,” which is to follow. Therefore we may render all his days better as “all day long.”

Are full of pain: the text says literally “every day [all day] painful things.” It indicates that every day there are painful things happening; so for translation we can consider “every day has its pain,” or “all day a person endures pain,” or “painful things happen every day.”

His work is a vexation is another noun clause, “vexation [is] his business.” Vexation was commented on in 1.18. See the notes there. For comments on the term work, see the reference to “business” in comments on 1.13. Since the term “business” has too heavy a commercial flavor, “work” or “his job” is better. In translation we may say “his work brings him further anguish,” “his work only makes him angry,” or “his job upsets him.”

Even in the night his mind does not rest: day and night a person has to contend with matters that are painful and upsetting and that prevent sleep. Even can be translated as “also,” but the main point Qoheleth is making is to claim that both day and night we are faced by these troubles. In the night or “by night” complements the earlier phrase “each day.”

His mind does not rest comes from the Hebrew “his heart does not lay down.” Many languages will have a special idiom to express this thought. What he worries about is not indicated, because Qoheleth as usual is making a very general statement. “He worries about what could happen” or “he keeps thinking about problems and cannot sleep” are possible models for translation.

This also is vanity: Good News Translation gives “useless” as the translation for hevel (Revised Standard Version vanity), but that is hardly its meaning. What Qoheleth notes is that such a situation is extremely frustrating, and we can mirror that in our translation with “What a frustrating situation!” Or, “What a nightmare!”

Two models for translation of the verse are:

• Every day he suffers and worries about his work. At night, he has no peace of mind. This too is a nightmare.

• Day and night he worries and loses sleep over his work. What a frightful situation to be in!

As Qoheleth ponders the key question again he encounters more and more situations that cause deep frustration, and so he asks, In this kind of life where can a person expect to find “lasting benefit”? His response follows in the next section.

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 .