_A good name is better than precious ointment_ The sequence of thought is interrupted, and the writer, instead of carrying on the induction which is to prove that all is vanity, moralizes on the other results of his experience. He has learnt to take a relative estimate of what men count good or evil... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting_ The customs of Jewish mourning must be borne in mind to appreciate the full force of the maxim. The lamentation lasting for seven (Sir 22:10) or even for thirty, days, as in the case of Aaron (Numbers 20:29), and Mose... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sorrow is better than laughter_ The thought is essentially the same as that of the preceding verse, but is somewhat more generalized. We are reminded of the Greek axiom, παθεῖν, μαθεῖν ("Pain is gain"), of the teaching of Æschylus. Ζῆνα … τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ- σαντα, τὸν πάθει μάθος θέντα κυ... [ Continue Reading ]
_The heart of the wise_ This follows as the natural sequel. Like goes to like. The impulse of the fool takes him to that which promises enjoyment; that of the wise leads him to that which has the promise of a higher wisdom and therefore of a more lasting gain.... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise_ The word for "rebuke" is characteristic of the sapiential books of the Old Testament (Proverbs 13:1; Proverbs 17:10). Here also the teacher finds the moral that "pain is gain." The "rebuke" is not pleasant, but it acts with a power to heal. The "song of... [ Continue Reading ]
_As the crackling of thorns under a pot_ As in Ecclesiastes 7:1 the epigrammatic proverb is pointed by a play of alliterative assonance (_sirim_= thorns, _sir_= pot). "As crackling nettles under kettles," "As crackling stubble makes the pot bubble" are the nearest English equivalents. The image is d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad_ Literally, FOR OPPRESSION … The sequence of thought is obscure and the English rendering is an attempt to evade the difficulty by making what follows the beginning of a new section. One commentator (Delitzsch) cuts the knot by supposing the first half of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof_ As in ch. Ecclesiastes 6:11, the noun translated "thing" may mean "word" and this gives a preferable meaning. It cannot be said of everything, good and bad alike, that its "end is better than its beginning" (comp. Proverbs 5:3-4; Proverbs 16:... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry_ From sins of speech in general, the teacher passes on to that which is the source from which they most often flow. Anger, alike from the Stoic and Epicurean stand-point (and the writer, as we have seen, had points of contact with each of them), was the note o... [ Continue Reading ]
_What is the cause that the former days were better than these_ It would be a mistake to treat this as describing merely the temper of one who is a "_laudator temporis acti, se puero_." That is, as the poet noted (Hor. _Epist. ad Pis_. 173), but the infirmity of age. What is condemned as unwise, as... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wisdom is good with an inheritance_ The words fall on our ears with something like a ring of cynicism, as though the teacher said with a sneer, "wisdom is all very well if you have property to fall back upon." If that sense were however admissible at all, it could only be by emphasizing the word "i... [ Continue Reading ]
_For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence_ Better, AS A SHADOW, or, AS A SHELTER, in both clauses. The Hebrew, as the italics shew, has no "and." "Shadow" as in Psalms 17:8; Psalms 91:1, stands for shelter and protection. This, the writer says, not without a touch of his wonted irony in coupl... [ Continue Reading ]
_who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked_ The sequence of thought is as follows. To "consider the work of God" intelligently is one application of the wisdom which has been praised in Ecclesiastes 7:11-12. In so considering, the mind of the DEBATER goes back to Ecclesiastes 7:10, and... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the day of prosperity be joyful_ Literally, IN THE DAY OF GOOD, BE IN GOOD, _i.e._use it as it should be used. True wisdom, the teacher urges, is found in a man's enjoying whatever good actually comes to him. The warning is against the temper which "taking thought for the morrow," is "over exqu... [ Continue Reading ]
_there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness_ The writer looks back on what he calls "the days of his vanity," his fleeting and profitless life, and notes, as before in ch. Ecclesiastes 2:14; Ecclesiastes 2:16, the disorders and anomalies of the world. The righteous are "of all men most... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not righteous over much_ Here again we have a distinct reproduction of one of the current maxims of Greek thought, Μηδὲν ἀγὰν (_Ne quid nimis_Nothing in excess) of Theognis 402, and of Chilon (Diog. Laert. i. 1, § 41). Even in that which is in itself good, virtue lies, as Aristotle had taught (_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not over much wicked_ There seems something like a paradox in the counsel. Surely, we think, the teacher is carrying his doctrine of the mean too far when he gives a precept, which, by forbidding excess, seems to sanction a moderate amount of wickedness. Various attempts have been made to tone d... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is good_ The sentence is somewhat enigmatic, and its meaning depends on the reference given to the two pronouns. Commonly, the first "this" is referred to the "righteousness and wisdom" of Ecclesiastes 7:16, the second "this" to the "wickedness and folly" of Ecclesiastes 7:17, and the Teacher is... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wisdom strengtheneth the wise_ The fact that the DEBATER had not forgotten that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7; Psalms 111:10; Job 28:21) serves as the connecting link between this and the preceding verse. The "ten mighty men" stand as a vague number, _certus pro in... [ Continue Reading ]
_For there is not a just man upon earth_ The sequence of thought is again obscure. We fail at first to see how the fact of man's sinfulness is the ground of the maxim that wisdom is a better defence than material strength. The following train of associations may perhaps supply the missing link. Ther... [ Continue Reading ]
_Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken_ The train of thought leads on to another rule of conduct. The fact that all men sin is shewn by the words with which men talk of the faults and weaknesses of their neighbours. To such words, the idle gossip of rumour, the comments on words or acts,... [ Continue Reading ]
_For oftentimes also thine own heart_ The rule of the previous verse is backed by an appeal to a man's own conscience, "_mutato nomine de te fabula narratur_." "Thou too art not free from the habit of censorious censure, of hard and bitter speeches; even, it may be, of -cursing," where blessing woul... [ Continue Reading ]
_I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me_ The words express at once the high aim of the seeker and his sense of incompleteness. Wisdom in its fulness was for him, as for Job (chap. 28) far above out of his reach. He had to give up the attempt to solve the problems of the Universe, and to conf... [ Continue Reading ]
_That which is far off and exceeding deep_ The English of the latter clause scarcely expresses the Hebrew more emphatic iteration AND DEEP DEEP. By some interpreters a like iteration is supplied in the first clause, FAR OFF IS THAT WHICH IS FAR, but there does not seem adequate ground for thus alter... [ Continue Reading ]
_I applied mine heart to know_ The present text and punctuation give, as in the marginal reading of the A. V., I AND MY HEART. The expression has no exact parallel in O. T. language, but harmonizes with the common mode of speech, familiar enough in the poetry of all times and countries, furnishing a... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I find more bitter than death_ The result is a strange one in its contrast to the dominant tendency of Hebrew thought; especially we may add to that thought as represented by the Son of David with whom the DEBATER identifies himself. We think of the praises of the Shulamite in the Song of Solom... [ Continue Reading ]
_saith the Preacher_ The passage is remarkable as being the solitary instance in the book in which the name _Koheleth_, feminine in form, yet elsewhere treated as masculine, is joined with the feminine form of the verb. It is possible, however, that this may be only an error of transcription, the tr... [ Continue Reading ]
_one man among a thousand have I found_ We have, in the absence of an adjective, to supply the thought "a man such as he ought to be, truthful and righteous." The form in which the rare exceptional discovery is given is as an echo from Job 9:3; Job 33:23. It represents we cannot doubt the capacity o... [ Continue Reading ]
_They have sought out many inventions_ The Hebrew word implies an ingenuity exercised mainly for evil but takes within its range, as in 2 Chronicles 26:15, the varied acts of life which are in themselves neither good nor evil. This inventive faculty, non-moral at the best, often absolutely immoral,... [ Continue Reading ]