Ecclesiastes 4:9

Two [are] better than one,.... The wise man takes occasion, from the solitariness Of the covetous man before described, to show in this and some following verses the preferableness and advantages of

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. Two (are) better than one. Two-opposed to "one" (Ecclesiastes 4:8).

Two, who live together in any kind of society, and join their powers together in any enterprises; which he opposeth to that humour of the covetous man, who desired to live alone, as was now said. A good reward for their labour; both have great benefit by such combinations and conjunctions of their counsels and abilities, whereby they do exceedingly support, and encourage, and strengthen one another, and effect many things which neither of them alone could do.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.Ver. 9. Two are better than one.] Friendly society is far beyond that wretched "aloneness" of the covetous wretch; he "joins house to house and land to land, that he may live alone in the midst of the earth." “ Quin sine rivali, seque et sua solus amato.” - Horat. Let him enjoy his moping solitariness, if he can. "It is not good for man to be alone," saith God; and he that loves to be alone is either a beast or a god, saith the philosopher Man is ζωονπολιτικον, a sociable creature - he is "nature’ s good fellow," and holds this for a rule, Optimum solarium sodalitium. There is great comfort in good company: next to communion with God is the communion of saints. Christ sent out his apostles by two and two. He himself came from heaven to converse with us; and shall we, like stoics, stye up ourselves, and not daily run into good company? The evil spirit is for solitariness, God is for society. He dwells in the "assembly of his saints"; yea, there he hath a delight to dwell, calling the Church his Hephzibah, and the saints were David’ s Hephzibam, "his delight." Neither doth God nor good men take pleasure in a stern, froward austerity, or wild retiredness, but in a mild affableness and amiable conversation. Aristot., Polit. i. Dupla et compaginata pleraque fecit Deus, ut coelum et terram, solem et lunam, marem et feminam. - Orig. in Gen. i. Vide Erasm. in Adagio. Sυντεδυερχομενω

Verse 9. Two are better than one] Married life is infinitely to be preferred to this kind of life, for the very reasons alleged below, and which require no explanation.

9. Two are better than one] The strain of moralising which follows indicates at least the revived capacity for a better feeling. As the Debater had turned from the restless strivings of the seeker after wealth to the simple enjoyment of the labouring man or even the sensuous pleasure of the indolent, so now he turns from the isolation of the avaricious to the blessings of companionship. Here at least, in that which carries a man out of himself, there is a real good, a point scored as “gain.” Here also, over and above his own experience the Seeker may have been helped by the current thought of his Greek teachers, the κοινάτὰφίλων of the proverb, or the lines of Homer, Σύντεδύʼ ? ἐρχομένω, καὶτεπρὸὃτοῦἐνόησενὍππωςκέρδοςἔῃ μοῦνοςδʼ ? εἴπερτενοήσῃ,Ἀλλάτεοἱβράσσωντενόυςλεπτὴδέτεμῆτις.“When two together go, each for the otherIs first to think what best will help his brother;But one who walks alone, though wise in mind,Of purpose slow and counsel weak we find.”Iliad, x. 224–6. So the Greek proverb ran as to friends χεὶρχεῖρανίπτει, δακτυλόςτεδάκτυλον.“Hand cleanseth hand, and finger finger helps.”The “good reward” is more than the mere money result of partnership, and implies the joy of “United thoughts and counsels, equal hopeAnd hazard.”The literature of well-nigh all ages and races abound in expressions of the same thought. Aristotle dedicates two whole books (viii. ix.) of his Ethics to the subject of Friendship, and Cicero made it the theme of one of his most finished essays. Commonly, however, men rested it, as the writer does here, mainly on the basis of utility. “The wise man,” says Seneca (Epist. ix. 8) from his higher Stoic standpoint, “needs a friend, not as Epicurus taught, that he may have one to sit by his bed when he is ill, or to help him when he is poor or in prison, but that he may have one by whose bed he may sit, whom he may rescue when he is attacked by foes.” We may point also to Proverbs 17:17; Proverbs 27:17, and the Jewish proverb “a man without friends is like a left hand without the right” (Pirke Aboth, f. 30. 2) as utterances of a like nature. It is, however to be noted, in connexion with the line of thought that has been hitherto followed in these notes as to the date and authorship of the book, that the preciousness of friendship as one of the joys of life was specially characteristic of the school of Epicurus (Zeller, Stoics and Epicureans, c. xx.). It was with them the highest of human goods, and the wise would value it as the chief element of security (Diog. Laert. x. 1. 148). The principle thus asserted finds, it may be added, its highest sanction in the wisdom of Him who sent out His disciples “two and two together” (Luke 10:1). if they fall] The special illustration appears to be drawn from the experience of two travellers.

9. Better than one — That is, happier. If the avaricious man would ally himself to a friend, his enjoyment would be increased.