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Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

Ecclesiastes 4:6

Verse Ecclesiastes 4:6. Better is a handful with quietness] These may be the words of the slothful man, and spoken in vindication of his idleness; as if he had said, "Every man who labours and amasses property is the object of envy, and is marked by the oppressor as a subject for spoil; better, therefore, to act as I do; gain little, and have little, and enjoy my handful with quietness." Or the words may contain Solomon's reflection on the subject.

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See also Ecclesiastes 4:6 in other biblical comments:

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    Either the fool’s sarcasm on his successful but restless neighbor; or the comment of Solomon recommending contentment with a moderate competence. The former meaning seems preferable....

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 4 OBSERVATIONS OF DIFFERENT WRONGS _ 1. Concerning oppressions (Ecclesiastes 4:1)_ 2. Concerning envy of fools and the rich (Ecclesiastes 4:4) 3. Concerning the miser (Ecclesiast

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    ECCLESIASTES 4. A GLOOMY SURVEY. The chapter falls into four parts, which treat respectively of oppression (Ecclesiastes 4:1), rivalry (Ecclesiastes 4:4), isolation amounting to self-torture (Ecclesia...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _Better is a handful with quietness_ The preposition is in both clauses an interpolation, and we should read "A HANDFUL OF REPOSE, … TWO HANDFULS OF TRAVAIL AND FEEDING ON WIND." In form the saying pr...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    THE FOOL FOLDETH HIS HANDS, &C.— _The fool, folding his hands together, and eating his own flesh, saith, Better is the palm of one hand full of rest, than both the hands full of work, and that which g...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    2. Keep your motive for work pure. Ecclesiastes 4:4-6 TEXT 4:4-6 4 And I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too i...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. BETTER (IS) AN HANDFUL (WITH) QUIETNESS, THAN BOTH THE HANDS FULL (WITH) TRAVAIL. Hebrew, 'one open...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    4:6 with (k-5) Or 'of.' with (a-11) Or 'of.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    VICISSITUDES OF LIFE. 'OH, THE PITY OF IT!' 1-3. The mass of human suffering and the absence of pity are such that better off are the dead and still more the unborn. It is not only through God's ord...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE TEACHER SEARCHES FOR THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ CHAPTER 4 This chapter contains several subjects. 1. PEOPLE WHO SUFFER – ECCLESIASTES 4:1-...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    טֹ֕וב מְלֹ֥א כַ֖ף נָ֑חַת מִ מְּלֹ֥א חָפְנַ֛יִ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    SECOND SECTION The Quest Of The Chief Good In Devotion To The Affairs Of Business Ecclesiastes 3:1 - Ecclesiastes 5:20 I. IF the true Good is not to be found in the School where Wisdom utters her vo...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    AND BY HUMAN INJUSTICE AND PERVERSITY. Ecclesiastes 3:16; Ecclesiastes 4:1 But not only are our endeavours to find the "good" of our labours thwarted by the gracious, inflexible laws of the just God...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    IT IS RENDERED HOPELESS BY THE BASE ORIGIN OF HUMAN INDUSTRIES. Ecclesiastes 4:4 This stinging sense of the miserable estate of his race has, however, diverted the Preacher from the conduct of the ma...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    From this general survey the preacher returned to examine the condition of the beings whom he had described as being no better than the beasts. He looked out upon them, and saw them in suffering, and...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Mind. These are the words of the slothful, (Calmet) or of truth. (Haydock) (Proverbs xvii. 1.) --- The indolent will not observe moderation in the application of this sentence. (Menochius)_...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. (4) Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 1 THROUGH 12. The Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the converse of the Book of Proverbs. (see NOTE TO PROVERBS below) It is the experience of a...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    BETTER [IS] A HANDFUL [WITH] QUIETNESS,.... These are the words of the fool, according to Aben Ezra; and which is the sense of other interpreters, particularly Mr. Broughton, who connects this verse w...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Better [is] an handful [with] quietness, than both the hands full [with] travail and vexation of spirit. Ver. 6. _Better is an handful with quietness._] This is the sluggard's plea, whereby he bolste...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Better is a handful with quietness_, &c. These are the words, either, 1st, Of the sluggard, making this apology for his idleness, that his little, with ease, is better than great riches got with much...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    PERSONAL MISFORTUNES...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Better is an handful, a small amount of this world's goods, WITH QUIETNESS, to be enjoyed in peace, THAN BOTH THE HANDS FULL, a large measure of riches, WITH TRAVAIL AND VEXATION OF SPIRIT, for riches...

  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

    "ONE HAND FULL OR REST IS BETTER THAN TWO FISTS FULL OF LABOR AND STRIVING AFTER WIND"."ONE HAND FULL OF REST" -"Better is. handful with rest, than both fists full of toil and chasing after wind" (Ber...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    4-6 Solomon notices the sources of trouble peculiar to well-doers, and includes all who labour with diligence, and whose efforts are crowned with success. They often become great and prosperous, but...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    These are the words, either, 1. Of the sluggard making this apology for his idleness, that his little with ease, is better than great riches got with much trouble. Or, 2. Of Solomon, who elsewhere sp...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Ecclesiastes 4:6 Better H2896 handful H3709 quietness H5183 hands H2651 full H4393 toil H5999 grasping H7469 wind...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE (ECCLESIASTES 4:4). Having all to briefly considered the oppression that was in the world, which has left him feeling that it was better if they had never been born, he no...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    CHAPTER 4 THE DREADFULNESS OF OPPRESSION. GUIDANCE ON LIVING. This chapter begins with considering the dreadfulness of oppression and then continues with thoughts on living, giving both good and bad...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 3:1 A profound gloom rests on the second act or section of this drama. It teaches us that we are helpless in the iron grip of laws which we had no voice in making; that we often lie at th...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Discontent and impatience because of the oppressions and iniquities of life. CHARACTERS: Solomon. CONCLUSION: The world is full of trouble. By reason of man's perversity, he is ever distur...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Ecclesiastes 4:2. _Wherefore I praised the dead more than the living,_ who are robbed, fleeced, and exposed to incessant afflictions, from oppression and war. Solomon alludes to extreme cases, such as...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit._ QUALITY BETTER THAN QUANTITY The “quietness” here spoken of is not the inactivity of sloth, but th...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour._ AN OLD PORTRAIT OF MODERN MEN Here is a portrait, drawn by a man who lived thousands of years...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ECCLESIASTES—NOTE ON ECCLESIASTES 4:4 Much of what is achieved by human ability stems FROM A MAN’S ENVY OF HIS NEIGHBOR. Here the Preacher focuses on the VANITY that comes to those who make such...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— ECCLESIASTES 4:5. EATETH HIS OWN FLESH.] Accomplishes his own ruin by indolence, exhausts his fortune, preys upon himself like one mad with hunger. _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 4:1 Section 5. Koheleth proceeds to give further illustrations of _man_'_s inability to be the architect of his own happiness_._ _There are many things which interrupt or des...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So I returned, and I considered all of the oppressions that are done under the sun: and the tears of those that are oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Proverbs 15:16; Proverbs 15:17; Proverbs 16:8; Proverbs 17:1;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Better — These are the words of the sluggard, making this apology for his idleness, That his little with ease, is better than great riches got with much trouble....

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