Ecclesiastes 7:14

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.

In the day of prosperity (literally, good) be joyful - literally, be in good.

In the day of adversity consider. Resumed from . "Consider," i:e., regard it as "the work of God;"

God also hath set the one over against the other - `God has made (Hebrew for 'set) this (adversity) also as well as the other' (prosperity). "Adversity" is one of the things which "God has made crooked," and which man cannot "make straight." He ought therefore to be "patient" (). 'A bird caught in a snare, the more it struggles to get free, the more tightly it is bound. So, if one be held by God in the bonds of affliction, there is nothing safer for him than that he gives himself up wholly to the will of God, (Cartwright).

To the end that man ... Holden explains 'that man may not find anything (to blame) after God' (i:e., after 'considering God's work,' ). The Vulgate and Syriac, 'against Him' (cf. ; ). Hengstenberg explains, God causes evil days to alternate with good ones, to the end that man should not find anything which will come after him - i:e., in order that he may not be able to fathom anything which lies beyond his present condition. So "after him," ; . These passages favour this latter explanation. Unable to discover ought beyond his present state, man is stripped of pride, and is driven humbly to look up to God and 'consider His work' (Ecclesiastes 7:13).