{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ECC","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Ecclesiastes","commonName":"Ecclesiastes","introduction":"The Hebrew title is Koheleth, which the speaker in it applies to himself (Ecc 1:12), \"I, Koheleth, was king over Israel.\" It means an Assembler or Convener of a meeting and a Preacher to such a meeting. The feminine form of the Hebrew noun, and its construction once (Ecc 7:27) with a feminine verb, show that it not only signifies Solomon, the Preacher to assemblies (in which case it is construed with the verb or noun masculine), but also Divine Wisdom (feminine in Hebrew) speaking by the mouth of the inspired king. In six cases out of seven it is construed with the masculine. Solomon was endowed with inspired wisdom (Kg1 3:5-14; Kg1 6:11-12; Kg1 9:1-9; Kg1 11:9-11), specially fitting him for the task. The Orientals delight in such meetings for grave discourse. Thus the Arabs formerly had an assembly yearly, at Ocadh, for hearing and reciting poems. Compare \"Masters of assemblies\" (see on Ecc 12:11, also Ecc 12:9). \"The Preacher taught the people knowledge,\" probably viva voce (\"orally\"); Kg1 4:34; Kg1 10:2, Kg1 10:8, Kg1 10:24; Ch2 9:1, Ch2 9:7, Ch2 9:23, plainly refer to a somewhat public divan met for literary discussion. So \"spake,\" thrice repeated (Kg1 4:32-33), refers not to written compositions, but to addresses spoken in assemblies convened for the purpose. The Holy Ghost, no doubt, signifies also by the term that Solomon's doctrine is intended for the \"great congregation,\" the Church of all places and ages (Psa 22:25; Psa 49:2-4).\n\nSolomon was plainly the author (Ecc 1:12, Ecc 1:16; Ecc 2:15; Ecc 12:9). That the Rabbins attribute it to Isaiah or Hezekiah is explicable by supposing that one or the other inserted it in the canon. The difference of its style, as compared with Proverbs and Song of Solomon, is due to the difference of subjects, and the different period of his life in which each was written; the Song, in the fervor of his first love to God; Proverbs, about the same time, or somewhat later; but Ecclesiastes in late old age, as the seal and testimony of repentance of his apostasy in the intervening period: Psa 89:30, Psa 89:33 proves his penitence. The substitution of the title Koheleth for Solomon (that is, peace), may imply that, having troubled Israel, meantime he forfeited his name of peace (Kg1 11:14, Kg1 11:23); but now, having repented, he wishes to be henceforth a Preacher of righteousness. The alleged foreign expressions in the Hebrew may have been easily imported, through the great intercourse there was with other nations during his long reign. Moreover, supposed Chaldaisms may be fragments preserved from the common tongue of which Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic were offshoots.\n\nTHE SCOPE of Ecclesiastes is to show the vanity of all mere human pursuits, when made the chief end, as contrasted with the real blessedness of true wisdom, that is, religion. The immortality of the soul is dwelt on incidentally, as subsidiary to the main scope. Moses' law took this truth for granted but drew its sanctions of rewards and punishments in accordance with the theocracy, which was under a special providence of God as the temporal King of Israel, from the present life, rather than the future. But after Israel chose an earthly king, God withdrew, in part, His extraordinary providence, so that under Solomon, temporal rewards did not invariably follow virtue, and punishments vice (compare Ecc 2:16; Ecc 3:19; Ecc 4:1; Ecc 5:8; Ecc 7:15; Ecc 8:14; Ecc 9:2, Ecc 9:11). Hence the need arises to show that these anomalies will be rectified hereafter, and this is the grand \"conclusion,\" therefore, of the \"whole\" book, that, seeing there is a coming judgment, and seeing that present goods do not satisfy the soul, \"man's whole duty is to fear God and keep his commandments\" (Ecc 12:13-14), and meanwhile, to use, in joyful and serene sobriety, and not abuse, the present life (Ecc 3:12-13).\n\nIt is objected that sensual epicurism seems to be inculcated (Ecc 3:12-13, Ecc 3:22, &c.); but it is a contented, thankful enjoyment of God's present gifts that is taught, as opposed to a murmuring, anxious, avaricious spirit, as is proved by Ecc 5:18, compare with Ecc 5:11-15, not making them the chief end of life; not the joy of levity and folly; a misunderstanding which he guards against in Ecc 7:2-6; Ecc 11:9; Ecc 12:1. Again, Ecc 7:16; Ecc 9:2-10, might seem to teach fatalism and skepticism. But these are words put in the mouth of an objector; or rather, they were the language of Solomon himself during his apostasy, finding an echo in the heart of every sensualist, who wishes to be an unbeliever, and, who, therefore, sees difficulties enough in the world around wherewith to prop up his wilful unbelief. The answer is given (Ecc 7:17-18; Ecc 9:11-12; Ecc 11:1, Ecc 11:6; Ecc 12:13). Even if these passages be taken as words of Solomon, they are to be understood as forbidding a self-made \"righteousness,\" which tries to constrain God to grant salvation to imaginary good works and external strictness with which it wearies itself; also, that speculation which tries to fathom all God's inscrutable counsels (Ecc 8:17), and that carefulness about the future forbidden in Mat 6:25.\n\nTHE CHIEF GOOD is that the possession of that which makes us happy, is to be sought as the end, for its own sake; whereas, all other things are but means towards it. Philosophers, who made it the great subject of inquiry, restricted it to the present life, treating the eternal as unreal, and only useful to awe the multitude with. But Solomon shows the vanity of all human things (so-called philosophy included) to satisfy the soul, and that heavenly wisdom alone is the chief good. He had taught so when young (Pro 1:20; Pro 8:1); so also; in Song of Solomon, he had spiritualized the subject in an allegory; and now, after having long personally tried the manifold ways in which the worldly seek to reach happiness, he gives the fruit of his experience in old age.\n\nIt is divided into two parts-- Ecc. 1:1-6:10 showing the vanity of earthly things; Ecc. 6:10-12:14, the excellence of heavenly wisdom. Deviations from strict logical methods occur in these divisions, but in the main they are observed. The deviations make it the less stiff and artificial, and the more suited to all capacities. It is in poetry; the hemistichal division is mostly observed, but occasionally not so. The choice of epithets, imagery, inverted order of words, ellipses, parallelism, or, in its absence, similarity of diction, mark versification. \n\n\n\nNext: Ecclesiastes Chapter 1\n\n","order":21,"numberOfChapters":12,"sha256":"62a4e2df92d463e33901953fd7e9216b7cdda1901a15b41c1d5d575025baa481","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":12,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/12.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":12},"totalNumberOfVerses":202},"chapter":{"number":7,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Proving that it is not a sensual enjoyment of earthly goods which is meant in Ecc 3:13; Ecc 5:18. A thankful use of these is right, but frequent feasting Solomon had found dangerous to piety in his own case. So Job's fear (Ecc 1:4-5). The house of feasting often shuts out thoughts of God and eternity. The sight of the dead in the \"house of mourning\" causes \"the living\" to think of their own \"end.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Sorrow--such as arises from serious thoughts of eternity. \n\nlaughter--reckless mirth (Ecc 2:2). \n\nby the sadness . . . better-- (Psa 126:5-6; Co2 4:17; Heb 12:10-11). MAURER translates: \"In sadness of countenance there is (may be) a good (cheerful) heart.\" So Hebrew, for \"good,\" equivalent to \"cheerful\" (Ecc 11:9); but the parallel clause supports English Version.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["(Psa 141:4-5). Godly reproof offends the flesh, but benefits the spirit. Fools' songs in the house of mirth please the flesh, but injure the soul.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["crackling--answers to the loud merriment of fools. It is the very fire consuming them which produces the seeming merry noise (Joe 2:5). Their light soon goes out in the black darkness. There is a paronomasia in the Hebrew, Sirim (\"thorns\"), Sir (\"pot\"). The wicked are often compared to \"thorns\" (Sa2 23:6; Nah 1:10). Dried cow-dung was the common fuel in Palestine; its slowness in burning makes the quickness of a fire of thorns the more graphic, as an image of the sudden end of fools (Psa 118:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["oppression--recurring to the idea (Ecc 3:16; Ecc 5:8). Its connection with Ecc 7:4-6 is, the sight of \"oppression\" perpetrated by \"fools\" might tempt the \"wise\" to call in question God's dispensations, and imitate the folly (equivalent to \"madness\") described (Ecc 7:5,6). WEISS, for \"oppression,\" translates, \"distraction,\" produced by merriment. But Ecc 5:8 favors English Version. \n\na gift--that is, the sight of bribery in \"places of judgment\" (Ecc 3:16) might cause the wise to lose their wisdom (equivalent to \"heart\"), (Job 12:6; Job 21:6-7; Job 24:1, &c.). This suits the parallelism better than \"a heart of gifts\"; a benevolent heart, as WEISS.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["connected with Ecc 7:7. Let the \"wise\" wait for \"the end,\" and the \"oppressions\" which now (in \"the beginning\") perplex their faith, will be found by God's working to be overruled to their good. \"Tribulation worketh patience\" (Rom 5:3), which is infinitely better than \"the proud spirit\" that prosperity might have generated in them, as it has in fools (Psa 73:2-3, Psa 73:12-14, Psa 73:17-26; Jam 5:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["angry--impatient at adversity befalling thee, as Job was (Ecc 5:2; Pro 12:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Do not call in question God's ways in making thy former days better than thy present, as Job did (Job 29:2-5). The very putting of the question argues that heavenly \"wisdom\" (Margin) is not as much as it ought made the chief good with thee.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Rather, \"Wisdom, as compared with an inheritance, is good,\" that is, is as good as an inheritance; \"yea, better (literally, and a profit) to them that see the sun\" (that is, the living, Ecc 11:7; Job 3:16; Psa 49:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Literally, (To be) in (that is, under) the shadow (Isa 30:2) of wisdom (is the same as to be) in (under) the shadow of money; wisdom no less shields one from the ills of life than money does. \n\nis, that--rather, \"the excellency of the knowledge of wisdom giveth life,\" that is, life in the highest sense, here and hereafter (Pro 3:18; Joh 17:3; Pe2 1:3). Wisdom (religion) cannot be lost as money can. It shields one in adversity, as well as prosperity; money, only in prosperity. The question in Ecc 7:10 implies a want of it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Consider as to God's work, that it is impossible to alter His dispensations; for who can, &c. \n\nstraight . . . crooked--Man cannot amend what God wills to be \"wanting\" and \"adverse\" (Ecc 1:15; Job 12:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["consider--resumed from Ecc 7:13. \"Consider,\" that is, regard it as \"the work of God\"; for \"God has made (Hebrew, for 'set') this (adversity) also as well as the other (prosperity).\" \"Adversity\" is one of the things which \"God has made crooked,\" and which man cannot \"make straight.\" He ought therefore to be \"patient\" (Ecc 7:8). \n\nafter him--equivalent to \"that man may not find anything (to blame) after God\" (that is, after \"considering God's work,\" Ecc 7:13). Vulgate and Syriac, \"against Him\" (compare Ecc 7:10; Rom 3:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["An objection entertained by Solomon \n\nin the days of his vanity--his apostasy (Ecc 8:14; Job 21:7). \n\njust . . . perisheth-- (Kg1 21:13). Temporal not eternal death (Joh 10:28). But see on Ecc 7:16; \"just\" is probably a self-justiciary. \n\nwicked . . . prolongeth--See the antidote to the abuse of this statement in Ecc 8:12.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["HOLDEN makes Ecc 7:16 the scoffing inference of the objector, and Ecc 7:17 the answer of Solomon, now repentant. So (Co1 15:32) the skeptic's objection; (Co1 15:33) the answer. However, \"Be not righteous over much,\" may be taken as Solomon's words, forbidding a self-made righteousness of outward performances, which would wrest salvation from God, instead of receiving it as the gift of His grace. It is a fanatical, pharisaical righteousness, separated from God; for the \"fear of God\" is in antithesis to it (Ecc 7:18; Ecc 5:3, Ecc 5:7; Mat 6:1-7; Mat 9:14; Mat 23:23-24; Rom 10:3; Ti1 4:3). \n\nover wise-- (Job 11:12; Rom 12:3, Rom 12:16), presumptuously self-sufficient, as if acquainted with the whole of divine truth. \n\ndestroy thyself--expose thyself to needless persecution, austerities and the wrath of God; hence to an untimely death. \"Destroy thyself\" answers to \"perisheth\" (Ecc 7:15); \"righteous over much,\" to \"a just man.\" Therefore in Ecc 7:15 it is self-justiciary, not a truly righteous man, that is meant.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["over much wicked--so worded, to answer to \"righteous over much.\" For if not taken thus, it would seem to imply that we may be wicked a little. \"Wicked\" refers to \"wicked man\" (Ecc 7:15); \"die before thy time,\" to \"prolongeth his life,\" antithetically. There may be a wicked man spared to \"live long,\" owing to his avoiding gross excesses (Ecc 7:15). Solomon says, therefore, Be not so foolish (answering antithetically to \"over wise,\" Ecc 7:16), as to run to such excess of riot, that God will be provoked to cut off prematurely thy day of grace (Rom 2:5). The precept is addressed to a sinner. Beware of aggravating thy sin, so as to make thy case desperate. It refers to the days of Solomon's \"vanity\" (apostasy, Ecc 7:15), when only such a precept would be applicable. By litotes it includes, \"Be not wicked at all.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["this . . . this--the two opposite excesses (Ecc 7:16-17), fanatical, self-wise righteousness, and presumptuous, foolhardy wickedness. \n\nhe that feareth God shall come forth of them all--shall escape all such extremes (Pro 3:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Hebrew, \"The wisdom,\" that is, the true wisdom, religion (Ti2 3:15). \n\nthan ten mighty--that is, able and valiant generals (Ecc 7:12; Ecc 9:13-18; Pro 21:22; Pro 24:5). These \"watchmen wake in vain, except the Lord keep the city\" (Psa 127:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Referring to Ecc 7:16. Be not \"self-righteous,\" seek not to make thyself \"just\" before God by a superabundance of self-imposed performances; \"for true 'wisdom,' or 'righteousness,' shows that there is not a just man,\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["As therefore thou being far from perfectly \"just\" thyself, hast much to be forgiven by God, do not take too strict account, as the self-righteous do (Ecc 7:16; Luk 18:9, Luk 18:11), and thereby shorten their lives (Ecc 7:15-16), of words spoken against thee by others, for example, thy servant: Thou art their \"fellow servant\" before God (Mat 18:32-35).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["(Kg1 2:44).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["All this--resuming the \"all\" in Ecc 7:15; Ecc 7:15-22 is therefore the fruit of his dearly bought experience in the days of his \"vanity.\" \n\nI will be wise--I tried to \"be wise,\" independently of God. But true wisdom was then \"far from him,\" in spite of his human wisdom, which he retained by God's gift. So \"over wise\" (Ecc 7:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["That . . . far off . . . deep--True wisdom is so when sought independently of \"fear of God\" (Ecc 7:18; Deu 30:12-13; Job 11:7-8; Job 28:12-20, Job 28:28; Psa 64:6; Rom 10:6-7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["Literally, \"I turned myself and mine heart to.\" A phrase peculiar to Ecclesiastes, and appropriate to the penitent turning back to commune with his heart on his past life. \n\nwickedness of folly--He is now a step further on the path of penitence than in Ecc 1:17; Ecc 2:12, where \"folly\" is put without \"wickedness\" prefixed. \n\nreason--rather, \"the right estimation\" of things. HOLDEN translates also \"foolishness (that is, sinful folly, answering to 'wickedness' in the parallel) of madness\" (that is, of man's mad pursuits).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["\"I find\" that, of all my sinful follies, none has been so ruinous a snare in seducing me from God as idolatrous women (Kg1 11:3-4; Pro 5:3-4; Pro 22:14). As \"God's favor is better than life,\" she who seduces from God is \"more bitter than death.\" \n\nwhoso pleaseth God--as Joseph (Gen 39:2-3, Gen 39:9). It is God's grace alone that keeps any from falling.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["this--namely, what follows in Ecc 7:28. \n\ncounting one by one--by comparing one thing with another [HOLDEN and MAURER]. \n\naccount--a right estimate. But Ecc 7:28 more favors GESENIUS. \"Considering women one by one.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Rather, referring to his past experience, \"Which my soul sought further, but I found not.\" \n\none man--that is, worthy of the name, \"man,\" \"upright\"; not more than one in a thousand of my courtiers (Job 33:23; Psa 12:1). Jesus Christ alone of men fully realizes the perfect ideal of \"man.\" \"Chiefest among ten thousand\" (Sol 5:10). No perfect \"woman\" has ever existed, not even the Virgin Mary. Solomon, in the word \"thousand,\" alludes to his three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines. Among these it was not likely that he should find the fidelity which one true wife pays to one husband. Connected with Ecc 7:26, not an unqualified condemnation of the sex, as Pro 12:4; Pro 31:10, &c., prove.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["The \"only\" way of accounting for the scarcity of even comparatively upright men and women is that, whereas God made man upright, they (men) have, &c. The only account to be \"found\" of the origin of evil, the great mystery of theology, is that given in Holy Writ (Gen. 2:1-3:24). Among man's \"inventions\" was the one especially referred to in Ecc 7:26, the bitter fruits of which Solomon experienced, the breaking of God's primeval marriage law, joining one man to \"one\" woman (Mat 19:4-6). \"Man\" is singular, namely, Adam; \"they,\" plural, Adam, Eve, and their posterity.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ecclesiastes Chapter 8\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Ecc. 7:1-29)\n\n(See on Ecc 6:12). \n\nname--character; a godly mind and life; not mere reputation with man, but what a man is in the eyes of God, with whom the name and reality are one thing (Isa 9:6). This alone is \"good,\" while all else is \"vanity\" when made the chief end. \n\nointment--used lavishly at costly banquets and peculiarly refreshing in the sultry East. The Hebrew for \"name\" and for \"ointment,\" have a happy paronomasia, Sheem and Shemen. \"Ointment\" is fragrant only in the place where the person is whose head and garment are scented, and only for a time. The \"name\" given by God to His child (Rev 3:12) is for ever and in all lands. So in the case of the woman who received an everlasting name from Jesus Christ, in reward for her precious ointment (Isa 56:5; Mar 14:3-9). Jesus Christ Himself hath such a name, as the Messiah, equivalent to Anointed (Sol 1:3). \n\nand the day of [his] death, &c.--not a general censure upon God for creating man; but, connected with the previous clause, death is to him, who hath a godly name, \"better\" than the day of his birth; \"far better,\" as Phi 1:23 has it.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/7.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":7},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/8.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":8},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/6.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":6},"numberOfVerses":27}