5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness; Let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head; Don't let my head refuse it; Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.
The ear that listens to reproof lives, And will be at home among the wise. He who refuses correction despises his own soul, But he who listens to reproof gets understanding.
Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
Don't reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding Than a hundred lashes into a fool.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; Although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 7
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
Solomon had given many proofs and instances of the vanity of this world and the things of it; now, in this chapter,
Ecc 7:1-6
In these verses Solomon lays down some great truths which seem paradoxes to the unthinking part, that is, the far greatest part, of mankind.
Ecc 7:7-10
Solomon had often complained before of the oppressions which he saw under the sun, which gave occasion for many melancholy speculations and were a great discouragement to virtue and piety. Now here,
Ecc 7:11-22
Solomon, in these verses, recommends wisdom to us as the best antidote against those distempers of mind which we are liable to, by reason of the vanity and vexation of spirit that there are in the things of this world. Here are some of the praises and the precepts of wisdom.
Ecc 7:23-29
Solomon had hitherto been proving the vanity of the world and its utter insufficiency to make men happy; now here he comes to show the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make men miserable; and this, as the former, he proves from his own experience, and it was a dear-bought experience. He is here, more than any where in all this book, putting on the habit of a penitent. He reviews what he had been discoursing of already, and tells us that what he had said was what he knew and was well assured of, and what he resolved to stand by: All this have I proved by wisdom, v. 23. Now here,