Ecclesiastes 12:13

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,.... Or "the end" (o) of it.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. A summary of the second, and the more important part. The whole forms the epilogue, an epitome of the book.

The conclusion of the whole matter; the sum and substance of all that hath been said or written by wise men, so far as it is necessary for us to know. Fear God; which is synecdoically put here, as it is very frequently in Scripture, for all the inward worship of God, reverence, and love, and trust, and a devotedness of heart to serve and please God, and a loathness to offend him, and an aptness to tremble at his word and judgments. Keep his commandments: this is fitly added as a necessary effect and certain evidence of the fear, of God. Make conscience of practising whatsoever God requires, how costly, or troublesome, or dangerous soever it be. The whole duty; in the Hebrew it is only, the whole; it is his whole work and business, his whole perfection and happiness, it is the sum of what he need either know, or do, or enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.Ver. 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,] scil., Touching the attainment of true happiness. Let us see (for a perclose of all) where and how it may be had. Shall I tell you in two words, saith the Preacher? I will so, and see that ye mark it. In the original, the word rendered conclusion here hath the first letter bigger than the rest, to stir up the greater attention to that which follows, since in this short sentence is contained the sum of all divinity. Fear God and keep his commandments.] Bear an awful respect to the Divine Majesty, a reverential fear; and from this principle obey God in every part and point of duty. Do this, and live for ever. Do it in an evangelical way, I mean; for we can do it now no otherwise. Wish well to exact obedience, as David doth in Psalms 119:4-5, "Oh that I could keep thy commandments accurately"; and woe is me that I cannot! And then be doing as thou canst; for affection without endeavour is like Rachel, beautiful but barren. Be doing, I say, at everything, as well as at anything; for thou must not be funambulus virtutum, as Tertullian phraseth it, one that goeth in a narrow tract of obedience. No; thine obedience must be universal, extending to the compass of the whole law (which is but one copulative, as the schools speak). And then, beati sunt qui praecepta faciunt, etiam si non perficiunt, they are blessed that do what they can, though they cannot but underdo. And, in libro tuo scribuntur omnes qui quod possunt faciunt, et si quod debent, non possunt. They are surely written all in God’ s book that do what they can, though they cannot do as they ought. I cannot let slip a note given by one that was once a famous preacher in this kingdom, and still lives in his printed sermons. The Book of Ecclesiastes, saith he, begins with "All is vanity," and ends with "Fear God and keep his commandments." Now, if that sentence were knit to this, which Solomon keepeth to the end, as the haven of rest after the turmoils of vanity, it is like that which Christ said to Martha, "Thou art troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary." That which "troubleth" us Solomon calls vanity; that which is "necessary" he calls the fear of God. From that to this should be every man’ s pilgrimage in this world. We begin at Vanity, and never know perfectly that we are vain till we come to fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man.] Heb., This is the whole man - q.d., He is not a complete man; he loses all his other praises that fears not God.

(13) Whole duty of man.—Rather, the duty of every man. The sacred writer practically anticipates the teaching of Rom 3:29.

Verse 13. After all, the sum of the great business of human life is comprised in this short sentence, on which some millions of books have been already written! FEAR GOD, AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS 1. Know that HE IS, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 2. Reverence him; pay him adoration. 3. Love him, that you may be happy. Keep his commandments] They are contained in two words: 1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart;" 2. "And thy neighbour as thyself." Blessed be God, much reading and much study are not necessary to accomplish this, which is called כל האדם col haadam, the whole of Adam; the whole that God required of the first man and of all his posterity. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be understood to comprehend the full force of this short saying. The word duty, added here by our translators, spoils, if not PERVERTS, the sense. The whole passage is rendered with great simplicity by Coverdale: - "The same preacher was not wyse alone: but taught the people knowledge also. He gave good hede, sought out the grounde, and set forth many parables. His diligence was to fynde out acceptable wordes, right scripture, and the wordes of trueth. For the wordes of the wyse are like prickes and nales that go thorow, wherewith men are kepte together: for they are geven of one Shepherd onely. Therefore be warre (my sonne) that above these thou make thee not many and innumerable bookes, nor take dyverse doctrynes in hande, to weery thy body withall. "Let us heare the conclusion of all thinges; Feare God, and kepe his comaundementes, for that toucheth all men; for God shall judge all workes and secrete thinges, whether they be good or evell." I shall give the same from my old MS. Bible: - And wan Ecclesiastes was most wiis he taght the peple, and told out what he had don, and enserchinge maade many parablis. He soght profitable wordis, and wrote most right sermons, and ful of trewth, The wordis of wismen as prickis and as nailis into herte pigt: that bi the counseyle of maisteris ben geven of oon scheperd. More thann thes sone myn, ne seche thou; of making many bokes is noon eend, and oft bethinking is tormenting of the flesche. Eend of spekinge alle togydir heere mee. Drede God, and his hestis kepe; that is eche man. Alle thingis that ben maad schal bringen into dome, for eche erid thinge, whithir good or evyl it be.

13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter] The word for “let us hear” has been taken by some scholars as a participle with a gerundial force, “The sum of the whole matter must be heard,” but it admits of being taken as in the English version, and this gives a more satisfying meaning. The rendering “everything is heard,” i.e. by God, has little to recommend it, and by anticipating the teaching of the next verse introduces an improbable tautology. The words admit of the rendering the sum of the whole discourse, which is, perhaps, preferable. Fear God, and keep his commandments] This is what the Teacher who, as it were, edits the book, presents to his disciples as its sum and substance, and he was not wrong in doing so. In this the Debater himself had rested after his many wanderings of thought (ch. Ecclesiastes 5:7, and, by implication, Ecclesiastes 11:9). Whatever else might be “vanity and feeding on wind,” there was safety and peace in keeping the commandments of the Eternal, the laws “which are not of to-day or yesterday.” for this is the whole duty of man] The word “duty” is not in the Hebrew, and we might supply “the whole end,” or “the whole work,” or with another and better construction, This is for every man: i.e. a law of universal obligation. What is meant is that this is the only true answer to that quest of the chief good in which the thinker had been engaged. This was, in Greek phrase, the ἔργον or “work” of man, that to which he was called by the very fact of his existence. All else was but a πάρεργον, or accessory.

13. The conclusion of the whole matter — After this long survey of human affairs, chiefly on their sad and shady side, this counsel has peculiar weight. It is the word of one who has tried it himself and examined it in other men.