16. This also. In all ages men have been distressed at the seeming futility of life. What point, asks the writer, is there in working hard for a lifetime, only to forfeit the fruits of toil at death?
What profit? None at all, of course, is the implied answer.
Laboured for the wind. Here a figure for utter futility (see Job 15:2; Prov. 11:29). The wind is unsubstantial, elusive, and cannot be grasped and held. So are the riches of this world.