Jerome : "Is it not good for man that he eats and drinks and shows his soul satisfaction in his labour? And even that, I perceived, is from the hand of God. For who should eat and who should make haste except me? To the man who pleases Him He has given wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He has given the urge to gather and amass - that he may hand it on to one who is pleasing to God. That, too, is vanity and a vexation of the spirit." After I examined all things and saw that nothing was more unjust than one man enjoying the work of another, then this work seemed to me to be the most righteous, and like a gift of God, seeing that a man may enjoy his own labour, drinking and eating, and for a time refraining from amassed wealth. And sometimes it is a gift of God, that such a mind as is bestowed upon righteous men, that they squander those things, which they have sought with great attention and vigilance. In fact on the other hand, it is the character of the anger of God, which is set against the sinner, so he amasses wealth day and night and uses if for no purpose, then he bequeaths it to those men who are righteous in the sight of God. But, he says, looking at this more closely and noticing that all things come to a common end with death, I have judged it to be the most vain of all. These readings are very close to the text though, so that I do not seem to completely miss the plain meaning of the words, and while I follow spiritual riches, disdain the poverty of history. For what is good then, or what kind of gift of God is it, either to covet his wealth and like a man in flight gather desire prematurely, or to turn someone else's work to ones own pleasures, and then to think that this is a gift of God, if we take pleasure in others' discomfort and toil? It is good though, to take our own food and drink, which we have found by divine will, from the flesh and blood of a Lamb. For who is either able to eat or when there is need to spare in the absence of God? He warned that sacred food must not be given to the dogs [Cfr Matth. 7, 6.], and he teaches how rations ought on occasion to be given to slaves [Cfr Matth. 24, 45.], and similar to another meaning, that is we ought to eat only honey that has been found, and only as much as is needed. But God gives wisdom and knowledge and happiness to the man who is good. [Cfr Prov. 25, 16.] For unless he was good and corrected his ways beforehand by his own judgement, he will not be worthy of that wisdom, knowledge and happiness, according to that which is said in another place: "Plant for yourselves in justice, make a vintage of the fruit of life, enlighten for yourselves the light of knowledge." [Os. 10, 12. (as in LXX)] In fact, righteousness ought to be planted first, and the fruit of life must be reaped, only then, afterwards the light of knowledge will be able to appear. Therefore just as God gave the good man wisdom and other gifts, in the same way he has forsaken the sinner according to his own judgement, and made him amass riches and contrive false doctrines therefrom. When a saintly man who is pleasing to God sees these things, he understands them, since they are vain and composed of the conceit of the spirit. Nor should we admire what he has said: "he gave vexation to the sinner" and so on. For this must be seen in concordance with that meaning which I have often explained: that for this reason anxiety or vexation has been given to him, since he was a sinner, and the cause of vexation was not in God, but in himself, who had sinned previously by his own volition. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes