Ecclesiastes 9:1-18
1 For all this I considereda in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
8 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
9 Liveb joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:
14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
Ecclesiastes 9:5. The dead know not any thing. This is explained by the next phrase, the memory of them is forgotten. Elijah went up to heaven, or paradise, as the Jews will have it. John 3:13. Similar are the words of a prophet: “Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us.” The Jews understood that Abraham gathered into his bosom the souls of his children. The soul of a good man returns to God, and enjoys the happiness of separate spirits.
REFLECTIONS.
Solomon here returns to a subject often resumed, that all events come alike to all classes. These studies present us with the boundaries which God has placed to the researches of the human mind. In contemplation we are lost in the immensity of glories and beauties which fill the heavens and the earth. The students of nature cannot count the stars, the zoologists cannot number the living beings of the earth, nor the botanist present us with any classification of plants worthy to be compared with the plenitude of God.
It is the same in the study of providence. There we see the wise and the foolish go alike to the grave, the hero and the coward fall in war, the good and the bad share in the afflictions of life. The ocean is sublime, and boundless to the sight. In the study of moral science, even prophets have stumbled in the dark. Psalms 37:1; Psalms 73:1; Ecclesiastes 2:16. But because of clouds, shall we say that there is no light. On a closer view, on the extension of our regards, are we not led to conclude, that God has a plan in his moral government, as well as in his creation? Is there not a care of the ark, and a shield to cover Abraham? Is there not a God to punish the idolatrous Jews, and to set a mark on the faithful ones? Is there not a living Redeemer, to fulfil his faithful word to the holy apostles?
The vulgar or brutish philosopher had praised the dead more than the living; but seeing there is a gracious God, the preacher exhorts the virtuous to rejoice in their works, and keep their white garments, worn at festivals, unspotted from the world. He exhorts the good man to rejoice with the wife of his youth, to love her, to make her his companion and friend, and treat her as a woman should be treated. Then she will study to return love for love, and please her husband in the Lord. We learn farther, that industry in business is a grand resource of augmenting moral happiness. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” Archbishop Leighton advises us, never to leave any thing till to-morrow which can be conveniently done to-day. The energies of life may be studied in the whole scale of animated nature. Happy for man to lay out his plans of labour, that he may finish some laudable work as the husbandman brings the labours of the seasons to a joyful harvest.
It is remarked further, that all men in the vicissitudes of life are overtaken with disappointments and afflictions. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Homer, describing the races after the fall of Troy, names a chief who was overturned in his car, filled with rage, while his mouth was full of dirt, and his nose bleeding. Evils seen and unseen, overtake us as the fish are enclosed in the net, and as the bird is caught in the snare. Let us learn then to be calm under strokes of adversity; they are common to man, and they may work for good. Let us, like the mariner in the storm, stick close to the helm, for it will soon be calm again. It indicates a noble mind that can trust in a beclouded providence, and bow to the pleasure of a God.
The case of the poor man, who delivered the little city by his wisdom, is put here to encourage us under the afflictions of life. Let no man despair. Prudence and industry, with the blessing of God, can extricate us from many great and sore evils. And he who befriends us in the time of trouble, should not be forgotten in the day of prosperity. Solomon thus closes his scale of argument with a bright thought, and leaves not his reader lost in a chaos of darkness. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.