Ecclesiastes 7

1. A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of 2 one’s birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the 3 living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of 4 the countenance the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of 5 mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of 6 fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this 7 also is vanity. Surely extortion maketh a wise man foolish; and a gift destroyeth the 8 understanding. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient 9 in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger 10 resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire 11 wisely concerning this. Wisdom is as good as an inheritance: yea, more excellent is it 12 for them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defence, even as money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom 13 preserveth the life of him that hath it. Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God hath even made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out any thing that shall be after him. 15 All this have I seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his evil-doing. 16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldst thou de 17 stroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldst thou 18 die before thy time? It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from that withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. 19 Wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers which are in a city. 20 Surely there is not a righteous man upon 21 earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. Also take not heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse 22 thee: for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. 23 All this have I proved in wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. 24 That which is is far off, and exceeding deep;

25 who can find it out? I turned about, and my heart was set to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the reason of things, and to know that wickedness is folly, and 26 that foolishness is madness: and I find a thing more bitter than death, even the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be

THE style of the writer here changes so as to show, especially in chaps. 7 and 10, a striking resemblance to that of the writer of the Book of Proverbs. Hitherto the principal object has been to state the vanity of the conditions of human life; henceforth the principal object will be to direct man how to conduct himself under those conditions. The last six chapters of Ecclesiastes contain a series of maxims, intermingled with statements of the writer’s own experience, and with direct addresses to the reader; the object of all which is to show what man should aim at, and what he should do, in order to be as free as his condition allows from the burden of vanity. The general drift of the writer’s counsels throughout these six chapters, and particularly in chap. 7:1-22, points to wisdom united with the fear of God as the “good for man in this life” which was stated at the end of the last chapter as the object of inquiry. It is illustrated by frequent reference to and contrast with that evil which consists of folly allied with wickedness. In pursuing it, good repute, seriousness, calmness, patience, trust in God, and forbearance, are set forth as objects to be aimed at (vs. 1-22). In his own pursuit of wisdom he found his greatest obstacle to be his familiarity with women; and its final result was a humbling conviction of the fallen state of man (vs. 23-29).

1. The likeness between reputation and odor supplies a common metaphor; the contrast is between reputation, as an honorable attainment which only wise men win, and fragrant odor, as a gratification of the senses which all men enjoy. The connection of this verse with the preceding verses is this: the man to whom Solomon addresses himself, who is supposed to want to know what is profitable for man and good in this life, is here told to act in such a way as ordinarily secures a good reputation (i.e., to act like a wise man), and not to aim at the gratification of the senses; and to teach himself this hard lesson, to regard the day of death as preferable to the day of birth. While Solomon preferred the day of death, he might still have regarded birth as a good thing, and as having its place in the creation of God. W. T. B.

27 taken by her. Behold, this have I found, saith the Preacher, laying one thing to another, to find out the account: which my soul still seeketh, but I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. 29 Behold, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

The Hebrew, which means strictly a name, is pertinently qualified in the received version by the word “good”—“a good name,” as in Prov. 22:1, “A name (i.e., a good name) is rather to be chosen than great riches.” Such a name is more fragrant than the sweet odors of the choicest ointments. This figure was familiar to the people of the East, who made great use of ointments and valued them highly. The comparison is at once pertinent and beautiful. We love to think of a truly good man. The mention of his name and even the very thought of him refresh the soul and strengthen every virtuous purpose and effort. The declaration that the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth seems by its connection here to be made concerning the good man especially, the man who both has and deserves to have a good name. As to him it is true; for birth opens to him the era of conflict, trial, temptation, contingency; but death closes the scene with victory—all perils over, all conflicts past, and the great problem of life wrought out with glorious success. These views are surely not too high for the age of Solomon, nor for his personal wisdom; for they appear in the utterances of some of the sages of heathen antiquity. “Judge of my principles and of my life,” said one of them, “when you have seen me die.” H. C.

He is something more or less than a man who has no regard for the name and influence that shall survive him. A good name is not only more precious than perfume, but it is a legitimate object of acquisition. B. B. E.—A name truly good is the aroma from virtuous character. It is a spontaneous emanation from genuine excellence. It is a reputation for whatsoever things are honest and lovely and of good report. It is such a name as is not only remembered on earth, but written in heaven. And should the Spirit of God so replenish a man with His gifts and graces, as to render his name thus wholesome, better than the day of his birth will be the day of his death; for at death the box is broken and the sweet savor spreads abroad. Hamilton.

When death overtakes the truly good man, it settles the matter in respect to him, that he has not run in vain, neither labored in vain; but at his birth no one could foresee how it would result with him. A birth in a family is considered a joyful event, but the death of a good man may be considered a more joyful one; for then the battle is fought and the victory won, and it is said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” J. M. M.—Death seems to the eye of sense the saddest and most mysterious of all retrogressions. The wheel is broken at the cistern; the circle of life completes itself, and returns to the non-existence from which it sprang. But the day of death is better than the day of birth, because death is a higher and nobler birth. The grave is an underground avenue to heaven, a triumphal arch through which spiritual heroes return from their fight to their reward, made conquerors, and more than conquerors, through Him that loved them. Macmillan.

He who faithfully discharges his duties to God and man, as they arise from time to time, and in the various forms in which they so arise, need give himself no special concern about dying grace. That will come when he needs it. God’s promise secures to such a man a happy exit from this world, and an abundant entrance into His own everlasting kingdom. Right living is the direct road to happy dying. Anon.

Let us not forget that if honor be for the dead, gratitude can only be for the living. He who has once stood beside the grave, to look back upon the companionship which has been forever closed, feeling how impotent, there, are the wild love and the keen sorrow to give one instant’s pleasure to the pulseless heart, or atone in the lowest measure to the departed spirit for the hour of unkindness, will scarcely for the future incur that debt to the heart which can only be discharged to the dust. Ruskin.

2-4. Sorrow may make the countenance sad, but it makes the heart better. Sympathy with those who are suffering griefs known to be the common lot of mankind serves to soften hearts otherwise hard, and to bind more closely together those whom the selfish collisions of life are wont to sever and keep asunder. Moreover, the grave gives us our best lessons on the value of time, the duties of life, and the momentous issues of eternity. Hence it is that wise men feel at home in the house of mourning even as fools do in the house of mirth. H. C.

3. Afflictions come not as messengers of displeasure, but as tokens of love; and in dispensing them God acts not as an offended Judge, but as a forgiving Father. They are intended to work “the peaceable fruits of righteousness” in those who are “exercised thereby,” so that they can say, “He hath done all things well,” and “in very faithfulness He hath afflicted us.” Their afflictions have a moral effect on others through their example, and a direct moral end in their own experience. By the sadness He gives them, “their heart is made glad.” H. H.

4. House of mourning, . . . of feasting. These phrases acquire a forcible significance from the Eastern custom of prolonging both festive and mournful celebrations through several days. W. T. B.

5,6. There are few men more dangerous in society than those whose wit and laughter foster giddy mirth and repel all serious thought. Solomon had seen such men, and had marked their influence adverse to true wisdom. H. C.—To hear the rebuke of the wise is a sign and means of wisdom, but to be fond of the song of fools is a sign that the mind is vain, and is the way to make it more so. The laughter of a fool may fitly be compared to the burning of thorns under a pot, which makes a great noise and a great blaze for a little while, but is gone presently, scatters its ashes, and contributes scarcely anything to the production of a boiling heat, for that requires a constant fire! The laughter of a fool is noisy and flashy, and is not an instance of true joy. H.—Your merry friend is not so merry as he would have you believe. He is more smiling when met than when overtaken; more full of jest with strangers than at home; loud in company, stupid by himself; in a word, bidding fair for an old age of stupor, gluttony, or drink. You know perfectly well that if youth be left out of the account, the people who run after public amusements are precisely those who cannot enjoy solitude, and who have never learned to endure themselves. J. W. A.

8. Better. Inasmuch as something certain is attained; and the wise and patient man contemplates the end throughout an entire course of action, and does not rest upon the beginning. W. T. B.—The text expresses the general principle or doctrine that by the condition of our existence here, if things go right, a conclusion is better than a beginning. It is in the condition of our existence in this world that this principle is founded. That condition is that everything is passing on toward something else, in order to and for the sake of that something farther on; so that its chief importance or value is in that something to be attained farther on. Thus, what we are, what we have, or effect, or attain, is still relative to something farther on.

And if that ulterior object be attained, and be worth all this preceding course of things, then “the end is better than the beginning.” This is the doctrine of the text; “the end,” when it is the accomplishment of the desirable purpose, “is better than the beginning.” The fruit is better than the blossom; the reaping is better than the sowing; the enjoyment than the reaping; the second stage of a journey to the happy home is better than the first; the home itself than all; the victory is better than the march and the battle; the reward is better than the course of service; the ending in the highest improvement of means is better than being put at first in possession of them. In all this we see it is conditionally, and not absolutely, that “the end is better than the beginning.” Foster.

The patient in spirit are here opposed to the proud in spirit, for where there is humility, there will be patience; those will be thankful for anything who own they deserve nothing at God’s hand; and the patient are said to be better than the proud, they are more easy to themselves, more acceptable to others, and more likely to see a good issue of their troubles. H.—All through the range of philanthropy, patience is power. The influences which do the world’s great work are not the proud and potent spirits, but the patient and the persevering. Hamilton.

Patience sees things as they are by seeing things as they shall be; patience puts things together and makes sense of things. It is the Divine glory to see the end from the beginning; it is human wisdom to see the beginning from the end. Carpenter.—Patience is the best chemist, for out of coarse earth she can draw pure gold, out of trouble peace, out of sorrow joy, out of persecution profit, out of affliction comfort. She teacheth the bondman in a narrow prison to enjoy all liberty. He hath within those strict limits his galleries, his walks, his orchards; though he be alone he never wants company; though his diet be penury he is content; all his miseries cannot make him sick, because they are digested by patience. He hath so overcome himself that nothing can conquer him. T. Adams.

It is commonly not difficult for men to be active, or even bravely so, but when you come to the passive or receiving side of life here they fail. To bear evil and wrong, to forgive, to suffer no resentment under injury, to be gentle when nature burns with a fierce heat, and pride clamors for redress, to restrain envy, to bear defeat with a firm and peaceful mind, not to be vexed or fretted by cares, losses, or petty injuries, to abide in contentment and serenity of spirit, when trouble and disappointment come—these are conquests, alas how difficult to most of us! Accordingly, it will be seen that a true Christian man is distinguished from other men, not so much by his beneficent works, as by his patience. He is another kind of man and not of us, is the feeling of all who are not in Christ with him. By this he will be seen and felt to belong to a distinct order of being and character. He is set off by his patience to be a brother and companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus. H. B.—That is a very remarkable phrase of John (Rev. 1:9), “the kingdom and patience.” The kingly virtues are all intertwined with patience and dependent upon it. The kingdom, the Divine kingdom, is inherited through faith and patience, and the kingly man is the patient man. It is a familiar enough fact that the great successes of the world have been won by hard and patient work, and not by inspired flashes. So in the spiritual realm. Spiritual self-mastery, full command of the deepest self, possession of all the soul’s resources of faith and hope and sanctified will—all are born of discipline and struggle working in the atmosphere of patience. They have to be won. Vincent.

9. This reason assigned against indulging hasty anger is very striking, viz.: that such anger finds its resting and abiding-place in the bosom of fools. Therefore, as you would be wise and would have the good of your wisdom, guard against sudden outbursts of anger. Under its impulses you will be very sure to do what you will have occasion to regret most bitterly. H. C.—Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others; for thou hast many faults and imperfections of thy own that require a reciprocation of forbearance. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou wishest to be, how canst thou expect to mould another in conformity to thy will. If thou desirest to be borne with, thou must bear also with others. Thomas à Kempis.

10. The wise man will rather accept the drift and tendency of his time, and make the best of it. Below the surface there lies perhaps the suggestion of a previous question, Were the times really better? Had not each age its own special evils, its own special gains? Illustrations crowd upon one’s memory. E. H. P.

In the days of Solomon, when Jerusalem flourished as the metropolis not only of religion, but of the riches of the world; when religion was established, and the ambulatory tabernacle fixed into a standing temple; when they flowed with plenty and were governed with wisdom, yet this text gives intimation that plenty passed into surfeit and loathing, and this into discontent and open complaint of the times. To satisfy or silence this malcontented inquiry is the design of the words. Supposing it to carry its own confutation, he confutes the question, not by argument but by reproof; not as a doubtful problem, but as a foolish question. South.—His meaning is, that the underlying assumption that the present age has degenerated below the standard of past ages, implies a distorted vision—an overestimate of present evils and an underestimate of present good. He would suggest to us that former ages had their evil as well as their good points, and that to compare the past with the present wisely will require a cool judgment and a clear-sighted eye. The mistake to which he refers here comes very often from the heavy pressure of some present evil. Sometimes the aged make it, because the former was the time of their activities, the present of their repose; and they are prone to feel that things were better done in those times when their hand was prominent than now when they are only lookers-on. Solomon does not give such a judgment of things the credit of wisdom. H. C.

In truth, as we expect a greater acquaintance with affairs and more mature judgment in an old man than in a youth, by reason of his experience, and his having seen and heard and thought more, it is reasonable that in like manner we should hope from our own age (if it knew its own strength, and would essay and apply it) more than from former times, being a more advanced age of the world, and enriched to fulness with numberless experiments and observations. Bacon—Each age has its own special nobleness, its own special use; but every age has been better than the age which went before it, for the Spirit of God is leading the ages on. When we look back longingly to any past age, we look not at the reality, but at a sentimental and untrue picture of our own imagination. We are neither to regret the past, nor rest satisfied in the present, but, like Paul, forgetting those things that are behind us, reach onward to those things that are before us. Kingsley.

11. An inheritance is good for little without wisdom. Though a man have a great estate, if he have not wisdom to use it for the end for which he has it, he had better have been without it. Wisdom is not only good for the poor, to make them content and easy, but it is good with riches to keep a man from getting hurt by them, and to enable a man to do good. Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, yea, better too, it is more our own, more our honor, will make us greater blessings, will remain longer with us, and turn to a better account. H.

12. Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence. Literally, “in the shadow of wisdom, in the shadow of money,” i.e., he who is defended from adversity by his wisdom is in as good a position as he who is defended by his riches. (For “shadow” in this sense see Psalm 121:5.) W. T. B.

The excellency of knowledge. Better, the profit, thus keeping up what we may call the catchword of the book. Wisdom, the writer says, does more than give shelter, as money does. It quickens those who have it to a new and higher life. E. H. P.—Wisdom preserveth the life. “Causes to live,” “makes alive.” Some understand this to mean that wisdom preserves life in safety, or renders life calm and happy; but a deeper meaning is elicited by comparing (with Professor T. Lewis) these words with those of our Lord, “The words that I speak unto you, they are the spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). W. T. B.

This is the excellency of knowledge, Divine knowledge, not only above money, but above the wisdom of this world, that it gives life to them that have it. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and that is life—it prolongs life. Men’s wealth exposes their lives, but their wisdom protects them. Nay, whereas wealth will not lengthen out the natural life, true wisdom will give spiritual life, the earnest of eternal life; so much better is it to get wisdom than gold! H.

Money is a defence. Money has a real value which the wise man cannot misunderstand. Such is the condition of human society that money is to it the key of all enjoyments and of all advantages. Money is a condensed world. He who is the possessor of money holds the means of diverting as well as of instructing himself, and even the power of securing the favor of his fellow-men. This law is in nature, and we are so much the less able to find fault with it, as it has for its authority the word of God. Monod.—The accumulation of wealth is simply the accumulation of power, which is valuable in the sight of God only so far as it is turned to noble uses. It is subject to the same law with accumulations of learning, discipline, culture, or skill in the arts. These, like wealth, are forms in which power is generated and stored up. The use and application of all these forms of power should be controlled by one common Christian law. If any one of these forms is used for selfish gratification, the possessor becomes an offender, in proportion to the value and quantity of the power which he misuses. Whoever accumulates learning, or discipline, or culture for selfish gratification alone, regardless of what he owes to Christ and humanity, has in him all the essential elements of a miser. We talk of misers as if they were found among the commercial classes only. But the term is applicable to all who hoard up God’s gifts in selfish carelessness of the duties which those possessions impose. It is the use of power for blessing which alone can bring happiness to him who has it. Especially is this illustrated by wealth. All experience shows that, when wealth is hoarded to an amount beyond the reasonable requirements of the holder or his dependents, it loses its power to confer well-being. It imposes a constantly increasing amount of labor, thought, and anxiety, for which the owner can by no possibility receive a personal return. It is God’s law that true enjoyment can never be attained unless we forget ourselves in the use of our power for the benefit of others. This law cannot by any possibility be evaded or transcended, and its penalties become stringent and emphatic just in the proportion that property selfishly hoarded increases in amount. M. B. Anderson.

13. The work of God. The same phrase occurs in 3:11, and here as there it signifies the scheme of Divine providence, the course of events which God orders and controls, as (in the language of Bishop Butler), “the Monarch of the universe, a dominion unlimited in extent and everlasting in duration, the general system of which must necessarily be quite beyond our comprehension.” It comprises both events which are straight, i.e., in accordance with our expectation, and events which are crooked, i.e., which by their seeming inequality baffle our comprehension. W. T. B.

Let it be forever settled in our mind that the Great God evermore doeth all things well. Hengstenberg has well said: “Because no one can withstand God, no one therefore should wish to. We ought to humble ourselves with joy beneath the almighty hand of God. For, as the Almighty One, He is the sum and substance of all wisdom, all love, all righteousness. Almighty arbitrariness is inconceivable.” Perhaps it were better to say, insupposable, i.e., utterly at variance with every just notion of wisdom and of love. H. C.—No man knows how the heart of God stands toward him by His hand. His hand of mercy may be toward a man when His heart may be against that man, as you see in the case of Saul and others. And the hand of God may be set against a man when the heart of God is dearly set upon him, as you may see in Job. T. Brooks.

14. 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 comes to him. And on the other hand he adds, In the day of evil, look well, i.e., consider why it comes, and what may be gained from it. E. H. P.

The “work of God,” just alluded to, fills human life with various and even contrasted scenes of prosperity and adversity. Hence adjust thyself to them as they occur. In the day of prosperity rejoice, thankful for the good which the Lord bestows in His loving-kindness. In the day of adversity, give thyself much to thoughtful reflection, if so be thou mayest discover in thy heart or life the occasion of the Lord’s chastisements. Moreover, God hath set prosperity so over against adversity, arranging them in such uncertain succession that no man can surely anticipate what is next. Let every man, therefore, be prepared for either. With a filial, obedient trust in God he need not fear, for the worst that can come will only bring him nearer to God and be therefore a blessing; but in the attitude of rebellion against God and in the selfish struggle after good that is only of this world, man is prepared for neither. The dark uncertainty expressed in the last clause was designed to bear especially upon the pleasure-loving and seeking class who make earthly good their great end of life. In such a world, so governed of God, how surely they must miss the end they seek and at last bewail their failure and their folly! H. C.

The good and prosperous days and times of our life are in God’s design given to us as peculiar times of comfort and rejoicing. The evil days, the days and times of our affliction and trouble, are in God’s design the proper seasons of recollection and serious consideration. The providence of God hath so contrived it, that our good and evil days, our days of prosperity and adversity, should be intermingled each with the other. This mixture of good and evil days is by the Divine providence so proportioned, that it sufficiently justifies the dealings of God toward the sons of men, and obviates all our discontent and murmurings against Him. Bishop Bull.—We ought to take notice of our comforts to keep us from grieving excessively for our crosses; for our crosses we deserve, but our comforts we have forfeited. If we would keep the balance even, we must look at that which is for us as well as that which is against us, else we are unjust to Providence and unkind to ourselves. God hath set the one over against the other, and so should we. H.

The virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which is in morals the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God’s favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David’s harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground; judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. Bacon.

He affirms that both adversity and prosperity are “made” and sent by God; that the unhappy and afflicted stand within the circle of His providence no less than the fortunate and successful. He means to teach us that we are blind to foresee and helpless to avert approaching changes; and that, because we are helpless and blind, we must put our trust in the God who “makes this as well as that,” who has hidden the future from us, that we may commit our way to Him to whom the future is present. Our prosperity is shattered, or our adversity relieved, our joy sinks toward sadness, or our sadness rises into joy, that, feeling our own inability to command our circumstances and emotions, we may remember and confide in Him who “orders all things as He pleases.” To win us to a deeper trust in God is what our disasters and our happy fortunes come for, our tempests and our calms, our perils and our deliverances. They come to set us thinking of Him whom, in the quiet, every-day course of our life, we are too apt to forget. They come to teach us that He is always with us, ordering all things according to the good pleasure of His will; and to constrain us to trust in Him instead of in ourselves, by making us feel how utterly we are in His hands. The surprises which befall us teach us how terribly uncertain our life is, and all that we hold dear in life; they teach us how ignorant we are, how impotent, how utterly in larger, wiser hands than our own. And if we are men indeed, and have discourse of reason, we learn at last that our only hope of peace lies in faith—in knowing and trusting Him who rules this world and all worlds, who sets all our times upon the score. Cox.

The goodness of God leadeth men to repentance—not actually in every case, alas! but in proper tendency and by God’s design. Exactly the same tendency, and the same benevolence of design on His part, are in everything dark and afflictive. Or, if we take the whole life, as holding both these elements in it, it is still true that in and by this whole life-discipline God designeth not the destruction of any man. He Himself is “a consuming fire” only to what is evil; He is a purifying and preserving fire to all that is good. The purifying, like the proving, is accomplished by the whole of the life-lot and discipline, not alone by the darker side of it—by what is felt to be tribulation. Brightest things have their function in the same great work. There are even some so constituted as to get more good of joy than of sorrow; who are more humble and more humane in prosperity than in adversity. Still, the adversity is needed, more or less of it, in almost every case, and in some cases much of it is needed to accomplish the holy, blessed object. If we did but think of that object, of its beauty and excellence, how when attained it will thrill our souls with a sacred joy, and bring us fully into the high fellowship of all holy spirits, we should not sigh because we have so “much tribulation,” but rather, sometimes, be in fear because we have so little. Raleigh.

15-18. Throughout this chapter wisdom is inculcated as the antidote to or as capable of mitigating the great evil, vanity; and in these verses Solomon states how the wise man should regard the “crooked work of God” when it bears upon him. After citing two instances of such work, viz., the reward of long life withheld from the righteous and given to the wicked, he says in effect, “Do not think that thou couldest alter this course of events so as to make it straight, that thou art more righteous or more wise than He is who ordained these events; viewing them in that spirit thou wilt only be lost in amazement at the incomprehensible ways of Providence. To set up thy judgment in opposition to His would imply an excess of wickedness and folly, deserving the punishment of premature death. But rather it is good for thee to grasp these seeming anomalies; if thou ponder them they will tend to impress on thee that fear of God which is a part of wisdom, and will guide thee safely through all the perplexities of this life.” W. T. B.

15. The doctrine of this verse is that moral retribution is not perfect in this life; that length of days, and by implication other forms of good and ill as well, do not befall men precisely according to their moral character. It cannot therefore be claimed that God’s moral administration is finished and perfect in the present life.

16. It is not supposable that this can be a caution against too much genuine righteousness or too much true wisdom. The better construction therefore is, Be not vain of your righteousness; do not make it obtrusive and repulsive. In the clause which speaks of wisdom, the form of the Hebrew verb very often means, to make a vain show, a foolish display. Such a course under the circumstances contemplated would precipitate persecution, and the unwise man might become the occasion of his own destruction. H. C.—“Be not righteous overmuch. In the acts of righteousness, govern thyself by the rules of prudence, and be not transported, no, not by a zeal for God, into any intemperate heats or any practices unbecoming thy character.” There may be over-doing in well-doing. “Make not thyself overwise; be not opinionative, nor pretend to give law to and give judgment upon all about thee, nor busy thyself in other men’s matters; as if thou knewest everything and couldest do anything.” H.

17. Fools have their own ways to perish; why shouldest thou hasten the time of thine own death by thine own folly? Although it be true, as is implied in v. 15, that the wicked man sometimes prolongs life in spite of his wickedness, yet take care not to abuse this fact by overdoing your wickedness, and so precipitate your ruin. H. C.

19. Wisdom strengthens the wise, strengthens the spirits, and makes them bold and resolute by keeping them always on sure grounds; it strengthens their interest and gains them friends and reputation; it strengthens them for their services under their sufferings.

20. The best men and they that do most good, yet cannot say that they are perfectly free from sin; even those that are sanctified are not sinless. None that live on this side heaven live without sin; if we say, We have not sinned, we deceive ourselves. We sin even in our doing good; there is something defective in our best performances. That which for the substance of it is good and pleasing to God, is not so well done as it should be, and omissions in duty are sins as well as omissions of duty. It is only just men upon earth that are subject thus to sin and infirmity; the spirits of just men, when they are got clear of the body, are made perfect in holiness. H.—The impression of human incompleteness is made by all the records of human lives which we possess. Go into a library, and take down volume after volume—the biographies and autobiographies of the foremost men, the saints and sages whom we all reverence. Are not the honest autobiographies what one of the noblest of them is called, “Confessions?” Are not the memoirs the stories of flawed excellence, stained purity, limited wisdom? There are no perfect men in them. Or if some enthusiastic admirer has drawn a picture without shadows, we feel that it is without life or likeness; and we look for faults and limitations that we may be sure of brotherhood. A. M.

Men sometimes object to the doctrine of the depravity of mankind. But the strongest teachings of the Bible and of the pulpit are more than confirmed by their own actions—by the conduct of the world itself. Every bolt and bar and lock and key, every receipt and check and note of hand, every law book and court of justice, every chain and dungeon and gallows proclaim that the world is a fallen world, and that our race is a depraved and sinful race. Anon.—The question is not whether Christian thoughts about a man’s condition are gloomy or not, but whether they are true. The people who complain of our doctrine of human nature, as giving a melancholy view of men, do really take a far more melancholy one. We believe in a fall, and we believe in a possible and actual restoration. Which is the gloomy system—that which paints in undisguised blackness the facts of life, and over against their blackest darkness the radiant light of a great hope shining bright and glorious, or one that paints humanity in a uniform monotone of indistinguishable gray involving the past, the present, and the future—which, believing in no disease, hopes for no cure? A. M.

21,22. Let the consciousness that thou thyself hast sometimes spoken too severely of others admonish thee to expect the same of other men, and even of servants toward thyself, and let it make thee content not to inquire very carefully into all they may say. H. C.

23. He means to say that he had applied practical wisdom in order to search out and investigate the true nature and essence of wisdom; for this seems to be the object now before us. Already has he told what practical wisdom achieves. But now he wishes to go deeper, to inquire into and search out its real nature and essence. Beyond its practical effects, he could not successfully pursue inquiries so as to discover its real nature or essence. The next verse shows how fully he was persuaded of this. M. S.

25. A more close rendering will give the nicer shades of the original, thus: “I turned myself round and round, even my heart did, to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and intelligence, and to know wickedness as folly, and this folly as madness,” i.e., to know wickedness in its true character as folly, and this folly to be real madness. H. C.

26. This is truly Oriental in its conception. Women, it seems, are the examples most in point of the folly in question. The low estimate in which females are held throughout the East, even down to the present day, never associating in the company of men, nor even eating with them, being moreover without education or any true dignity of character, and reckoned as mere menial instruments of man’s pleasure, leads, of course, to degradation and depravation of character. Here, then, Coheleth seeks his most striking examples of folly, either in its mental or moral sense. M. S.—He now discovered more than ever of the evil of that great sin which he himself had been guilty of, the loving of many strange women (1 Kings 11 : 1); this is that which he here most feelingly laments. He found the remembrance of the sin very grievous. What an agony was he in upon the thought of it; the wickedness, the foolishness, the madness, that he had been guilty of! I find it more bitter than death. H.

28. As the Scriptures often speak of women illustrious for their virtues, and Solomon himself praises such (Prov. 12 : 4 ; 18 : 22), he could not mean that a virtuous woman was nowhere to be found. There is in this respect no difference between the two sexes. But Solomon’s meaning is that having searched out the reason of all the wickedness that passes in the world (v. 25), he had found that there was nothing more dangerous and wicked than a disorderly woman, such as he describes at v. 26, whose malice and artifice are scarcely to be conceived; nor can they who have suffered themselves to be surprised by her without great difficulty escape her snares. Solomon, therefore, does not here speak of women in general, but of such as he had been describing. Ostervald.

29. But whence this overwhelming and universal extension of folly and profligacy? Is this one of the arrangements of Providence, so often spoken of and appealed to by him? This is a question which he meets by strong denial. M. S.—He had found that God created man holy that he might be holy and happy in life, but that by his own perverseness, by sinful indulgences, he had created many sorrows and sufferings for himself. J. M. M.—“Inventions,” not in the arts—the handicrafts of life, but in the science of sinning, in devices for the perpetration of iniquity. God made man upright; but man, falling from his primeval purity, had strangely prostituted his powers to sinning, to devising methods of selfish gratification, schemes of fraud, treachery, pollution, the covering up of iniquity; the means of being, in fact, intensely wicked, and yet of retaining the semblance of virtue. Ah, how does it tax the ingenuity of wicked men to sustain an appearance of virtue so unlike the foul reality of their vices! H. C.

How different is our state from that for which God made us? He meant us to be simple, and we are unreal; He meant us to think no evil, and a thousand associations, bad, trifling, or unworthy, attend our every thought. He meant us to be drawn on to the glories without us, and we are drawn back and fascinated by the miseries within us. And hence it is that the whole structure of society is so artificial; no one trusts another, if he can help it; safeguards, checks, and securities are ever sought after. Men give good names to what is evil, they sanctify bad principles and feelings; and, knowing that there is vice and error, selfishness, pride, and ambition in the world, they attempt, not to root out these evils, not to withstand these errors—that they think a dream, the dream of theorists who do not know the world—but to cherish and form alliance with them, to use them to make a science of selfishness, to flatter and indulge error, and to bribe vice with the promise of bearing with it so that it does but keep in the shade. Newman.