The Book of Ecclesiastes 7:1–29

 ¹A good name is better than precious ointment,

And the day of death than the day of one’s birth;

²Better 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 living will take it to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter,

For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

⁵It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise

Than for a man to hear the song of fools.

⁶For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,

So is the laughter of the fool.

This also is vanity.

⁷Surely oppression destroys a wise man’s reason,

And a bribe debases the heart.

⁸The end of a thing is better than its beginning;

The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

⁹Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry,

For anger rests in the bosom of fools.

¹⁰Do not say,

“Why were the former days better than these?”

For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

¹¹Wisdom is good with an inheritance,

And profitable to those who see the sun.

¹²For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense,

But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.

¹³Consider the work of God;

For who can make straight what He has made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful,

But in the day of adversity consider:

Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,

So that man can find out nothing that will come after him.

¹⁵I have seen everything in my days of vanity:

There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness,

And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness.

¹⁶Do not be overly righteous,

Nor be overly wise:

Why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be overly wicked,

Nor be foolish:

Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you grasp this,

And also not remove your hand from the other;

For he who fears God will escape them all.

¹⁹Wisdom strengthens the wise

More than ten rulers of the city.

²⁰For there is not a just man on earth who does good

And does not sin.

²¹Also do not take to heart everything people say,

Lest you hear your servant cursing you.

²²For many times, also, your own heart has known

That even you have cursed others.

²³All this I have proved by wisdom. I said,

“I will be wise”;

But it was far from me.

²⁴As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep,

Who can find it out?

²⁵I applied my heart to know,

To search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things,

To know the wickedness of folly,

Even of foolishness and madness.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death

The woman whose heart is snares and nets,

Whose hands are fetters.

He who pleases God shall escape from her,

But the sinner shall be trapped by her.

²⁷“Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher, “

Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason,

²⁸Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find:

One man among a thousand I have found,

But a woman among all these I have not found.

²⁹Truly, this only I have found:

That God made man upright,

But they have sought out many schemes.”

Commentary

Vs. 1 “A good name is better than precious ointment,

And the day of death than the day of one’s birth;”

A good name here is symbolic with having good character. For being an upright and just person has a much greater and more pleasing fragrance than one who is only costumed up with perfumes and colognes. That the day of ones death is better than the day of ones birth clearly then is tied with those whose lives have been lived justly and righteously, for truly every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will have a glorious end, even if their beginning and life before Christ was not.

Vs. 2 “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 living will take it to heart.”

Contriteness and humility before God is a much better stance to take than to go on “feasting” with the partying crowd, for our appearing before Him is end of us all (consider Isaiah 22:12-14).

Vs. 3 “Sorrow is better than laughter,

For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.”

Some people never let themselves experience grief, and yet it is by grief, by mourning one’s losses, that one’s heart is made better.  

Vs. 4 “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

Again, wise people know when contriteness and humility is called for, while fools only live their lives for partying, for whatever pleasures they can have here and now. While some also always need to be laughing, like a drug they cannot live with out it. Everything they do and say then is meant to arouse it. Thus, they avoid serious conversations and serious reflection, serious interactions and interventions, and in the end, they only live very shallow self-centered lives.

Vs. 5 “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise

Than for a man to hear the song of fools.”

The wise man will rebuke you when you are going astray, but the fool will sing songs to you; that is, he will encourage you to carry on in your folly, to carry on with what will only harm you in the end.

Vs. 6 “For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,

So is the laughter of the fool.

This also is vanity.”

The laughter of the fool always has an annoying sound to the ears of anyone who walks uprightly, like nails on a chalkboard etc., because the wise man knows that what makes the fool laugh is ruining him and will ruin others.

Vs. 7 “Surely oppression destroys a wise man’s reason,

And a bribe debases the heart.”

People who wield power must not become power hungry, and they must never yield to bribes or "gifts" that will influence their decisions, since receiving such only corrupts (debases) ones hearts, which then leads them into overlooking (or justifying) all kinds of evil and sins.

Vs. 8 “The end of a thing is better than its beginning;

The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”

Completing something that one started (like a journey) is always better than its beginning, for now all of the trials and struggles are behind you. For a Christian this is the end of our journey down here, when we go to be with Jesus Christ forever! And so it is, the patient in spirit is always better than the proud in spirit, for the patient in spirit will be rewarded, but the proud in spirit will be repaid.

Vs. 9 “Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry,

For anger rests in the bosom of fools.”

The person who is quick to anger only shows themselves a fool, as a person incapable of controlling their emotions and governing their responses, all which inevitably only harms them.

Vs. 10 Do not say,

“Why were the former days better than these?”

For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

Some people like to “glorify” the past, as if there was once "a golden era" that we have now missed out on. And yet the past also had its own hardships, trials, and evil afflictions, therefore don’t glorify the past, instead live your life in the here and now and make the most of it!

Vs. 11-12 ¹¹Wisdom is good with an inheritance,

And profitable to those who see the sun.

¹²For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense,

But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.

The wisdom here with an inheritance is not philosophical, it is eminently practical, Biblically guiding you into making wise choices and decisions. And so it is a defense (like money is defense), but the value of wisdom is that it gives life to those who have it, especially those who have now received Christ! For Money in of itself does bring life, and can bring its own temptations, troubles, and sorrows, which you cannot buy your way out of.

Vs. 13 “Consider the work of God;

For who can make straight what He has made crooked?”

The thought here is to always revere God as Highest, as the only Sovereign One, for He alone is the One who gives decrees that cannot be circumvented or altered.

Vs. 14 “In the day of prosperity be joyful,

But in the day of adversity consider:

Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,

So that man can find out nothing that will come after him.”

King Solomon now counsels us to be joyful in the days of our prosperity, but more importantly to also consider in the days of our adversity, for surely God has appointed one as well as the other (Isaiah 45:17), so that we cannot find out what will come after us. Therefore we should always be self reflective to see if we have sinned and or erred in some way when troubles or adversity comes our way. Still, there are times when God brings adversity into our lives, that are not so easily explained or understood.

Vs. 15 “I have seen everything in my days of vanity:

There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness,

And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness.”

King Solomon was frustrated by seemingly injustices down here under the sun, where the just man perishes in his righteousness, while the wicked man prolongs his life while in his wickedness. For this world down here under the sun, and not under the Son of God, can be an evil and very unjust place, where people don't always get what they deserve in this life.

Vs. 16-18 ¹⁶Do not be overly righteous,

Nor be overly wise:

Why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be overly wicked,

Nor be foolish:

Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you grasp this,

And also not remove your hand from the other;

For he who fears God will escape them all.

Two polar opposite errors are now presented to us and we are cautioned about both. The first is being overtly righteous or wise; now as to being overly righteous this can be an attitude of "superiority" or self righteousness, as the Pharisees exemplified in the N.T. It can also be found today in seeing sin and sinners everywhere, and then ranting on about them in the cruelest and harshest ways. Such an attitude though is wrong since it denies the Lord Jesus Christ's and the Gospels purpose, to reconcile people back to God. Generally such people then have no desire for reconciliation and restoration of the sinner when they sin, just anger, punishment, and wrath. It is an attitude then that only harms them, for in the end, the measure one uses will be measured back to you. Similarly, there are those who think themselves wise, who think they are always one step head of everyone around them, but again in reality, they are only blind and self deceived to their own sims and many shortcomings (Prov. 30:12; Luke 18:9-14). Following then either of those paths will only destroy you, just as surely as being overly wicked or foolish will cause you to die before your time, for both self righteousness and arrogance, sin and folly will shorten your days down here. And so it is, he who fears God will escape them all!

Vs. 19 Wisdom strengthens the wise

More than ten rulers of the city.

The exceedingly great value of wisdom is now exalted, for it strengthens the wise more than a city with ten rulers, who even if they are intelligent, or industrious, or even mighty and courageous, if they do not have wisdom, Biblical sound wisdom, the city which they rule may just come to ruin, because bad decisions (and poor planning) always have many negative ripple effects.

Vs. 20 “For there is not a just man on earth who does good

And does not sin.”

This is why humility is needed by us all, because there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. For even people at their very best will sin, and the only way to avoid sins many pitfalls which ruin lives and relationships is by Biblical wisdom.

Vs. 21-22 ²¹Also do not take to heart everything people say,

Lest you hear your servant cursing you.

²²For many times, also, your own heart has known

That even you have cursed others.

As an employer overhearing your employees conversations about you is almost unavoidable, now when you do, don’t take everything they say to heart, for idle talk about the boss is a given in any workplace. And as the Scripture says, you also have spoken unbecoming words (cursed others) as well. Letting those words slide then is the best way to deal with them. 

Vs. 23 All this I have proved by wisdom. I said,

“I will be wise”;

But it was far from me.

Even though King Solomon came to great truths and understanding, he still saw that in striving to be wise, it was still far from him. Here then is his acknowledgment that we all need Someone much wiser than ourselves in our lives, to guide our lives, and that Person is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Vs. 24 “As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep,

Who can find it out?”

Again, king Solomon acknowledges that there are things which the Lord God Almighty has reserved for Himself, to alone know and understand (Deut. 29:29). There is then a need to return too and deal with the everyday affairs in ones own life, rather than chasing and pursuing that which belongs to God alone. 

Vs. 25-26 ²⁵I applied my heart to know,

To search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things,

To know the wickedness of folly,

Even of foolishness and madness.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death

The woman whose heart is snares and nets,

Whose hands are fetters.

He who pleases God shall escape from her,

But the sinner shall be trapped by her.

King Solomon now declares that in searching out the depths of wisdom, of even knowing the depths of wickedness and folly, of foolishness and madness, that there is nothing more enslaving for a man than to be enraptured by the harlot women, whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters, for most ironically, she is the person by which God deals with the sinner down here.

Vs. 27-28 ²⁷“Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher, “

Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason,

²⁸Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find:

One man among a thousand I have found,

But a woman among all these I have not found.

King Solomon in seeking out wisdom found that only one man in thousand was worth listening too; was capable of enlightening and enrichening his soul. But among women (with all of his wives and concubines) he found none. Clearly then this passage is pointing us all to the Lord Jesus Christ as truly that one Man in a thousand. For down here everybody else, every "religion",  falls exceedingly short of His Wisdom and Understanding. 

Vs. 29 “Truly, this only I have found:

That God made man upright,

But they have sought out many schemes.”

When God created Adam and Eve they were without sin, they were made upright, they then bore the Image of God just as He created them to do so, but after their fall when sin entered the world, mankind's hearts have been bent on evil. Generation after generation then have only sought out many schemes. Of which humanity, sadly seems incapable of running out of.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.