Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

Concerning Despotism and Wealth.

Ecclesiastes 5:8 f. The oppression and injustice that one sees (in an Oriental satrapy) are not to be wondered at when we remember the graded hierarchy of officials who are all eager simply to enrich themselves. There is no reference to God; read, One high official is watching over another, and there are higher ones (perhaps the king) over them. Yet on the whole a king, especially if he take an interest in agriculture, is an advantage to a country. So we may interpret the extremely difficult Ecclesiastes 5:9 (cf. mg.).

Ecclesiastes 5:10 ff. The avaricious man is always poor; though his wealth increases he lacks satisfaction, enlarged income means enlarged expense, any gain that he has is outward and therefore unreal. And with wealth comes worry and sleeplessness, from which the humble toiler is free. Not only so, but disaster may overtake the wealth won at the cost of health and comfort; some unlucky adventure, e.g. a shipwreck or a marauding raid, may render him and the son for whom he has been saving, penniless. With Ecclesiastes 5:15 cf. Job 1:21; 1 Timothy 6:7. All the rich man's toil has yielded nothing more than wind (cf. Proverbs 11:29; Isaiah 26:18).

Ecclesiastes 5:17 may refer to the days succeeding the calamity or to the inner meaning of the days preceding it.

Ecclesiastes 5:18. It is far better to enjoy life as one goes along (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:24; Ecclesiastes 9:7), getting the best out of each day, than to be miserly. After all, it is God that giveth us all things richly to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17), and if God thus occupies a man with the joy of his heart (so read Ecclesiastes 5:20 b), he will not brood over the swiftness of his passing days.