Old Testament Commentary - Ecclesiastes 7

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
                 CHAPTER 7                  

Wisdom giveth life to them that have it—All men are sinners—God hath made man upright.

  1 A GOOD aname is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
 1a Prov. 22:1

  2 ¶ It is better to go to the house of amourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
  3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the asadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
  4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
 2a TG Mourning
 2a 2 Cor. 7:10

  5 It is better to hear the arebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
  6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the alaughter of the fool: this also is bvanity.
 5a TG Reproof
 6a TG Laughter; TG Levity
   b TG Vanity

  7 ¶ Surely oppression maketh a wise man amad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
  8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the apatient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
 7a OR a fool (foolish)
 8a TG Patience

  9 Be not ahasty in thy spirit to be bangry: for canger resteth in the bosom of fools.
  10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
 9a TG Rashness
   b Prov. 29:22 (21-23)
   c TG Anger

  11 ¶ Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
  12 For awisdom is a bdefence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth clife to them that have ita.
  13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that astraight, which he hath made crooked?
 12a wisdom giveth life to them that have it There are two ways to read this. The first is that 'wisdom giveth life to them that have wisdom.' But that is not totally true, for the case in point with Solomon is that despite his great wisdom he had come to feel that the possession of it was but vanity with no eternal value itself after death. But that was Solomon's later opinion after he himself had fallen into the darkness of a sinful nature in his older age. Read the second way it seem to convey a further truth concerning wisdom and that is, 'Wisdom giveth life to them that have life.' That is they who have gained the hope of eternal life in and through the Lord, even Jesus Christ. Solomon had lost that hope in his darkened sinful interpretaions of his later life. Despite his great attainment to the principles of wisdom, without the 'light of truth' of Jesus Christ, which is intelligence of the atonement and eventual salvation and exaltation of man beyond the grave of death which the man of sin doth suffer, there is the eternal fact of immortality and that greater existence which the 'light of truth' doth magnify man into being able to become even as God and Jesus Christ are one in that greater intelligence so man may also become one with them. And that is the glory of God, Intelligence.  12a D&C 6:7
     b HEB shade; i.e., a protection
     c Prov. 3:18 (13-19)
 13a Eccl. 1:15

  14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of aadversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
 14a TG Adversity

  15 All things have I seen in the days of my avanity: there is a bjust man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
  16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
 15a TG Vanity
     b Eccl. 8:14

  17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
  18 It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that afeareth God shall come forth of them all.
  19 aWisdom bstrengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
 18a OR reveres God
 19a Prov. 21:22; Eccl. 9:16-18;
       D&C 52:17
     b Prov. 24:5

  20 For there is not a ajust man upon earth, that doeth good, and bsinneth not.
  21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee:
  22 For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others.
 20a D&C 33:4
     b TG Sin

  23 ¶ All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
  24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
  25 I applied mine aheart to know, and to search, and to seek out bwisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
  26 And I find more abitter than death the bwoman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the csinner shall be dtaken by her.
 25a Eccl. 1:17; Mosiah 12:27
     b D&C 42:68
 26a Prov. 5:4
     b TG Woman
     c 1 Ne. 22:15-17
     d Prov. 2:19

  27 Behold, this have I found, saith the apreacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
  28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
  29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many ainventionsa.
 29a they have sought out many inventions Bishop Eusebius of Ceasarea in his Ecclesiastical History of the Church points out that one of his primary purposes is to disclose the 'innovations' of their own minds to which men had taken the truths of the gospel into being. This seems to be the same such comment here. Not that inventions of the world are bad, for many do come of much good, but those type of 'inventions' I do not think that this is speaking of. Rather, like Eusebius, it seems that they are being particularly spoken of as such as the 'innovations of the mind' to which men have sought to change according to their own whims and desires, the truths of God to be outside the reality of what they truly are. For it doth seem to please the human mind to conform such of God to meet their personal perspectives of what they would make such to be rather than what it truly is and the inconvience that it places upon the carnal human nature to have to conform itself to the ultimate truths of God. And thus the world is filled with such corruptions of truth into the falsehoods of the human mind and its theories and such which it subjects the light of truth into being.  27a Eccl. 1:1
 29a OR devices, arts
       IE innovations of the mind