1 Better `is' a name than good perfume, And the day of death than the day of birth.
A name is chosen rather than much wealth, Than silver and than gold -- good grace.
And I am praising the dead who have already died above the living who are yet alive.
for to me to live `is' Christ, and to die gain. And if to live in the flesh `is' to me a fruit of work, then what shall I choose? I know not; for I am pressed by the two, having the desire to depart, and to be with Christ, for it is far better,
we have courage, and are well pleased rather to be away from the home of the body, and to be at home with the Lord.
And supper being come, the devil already having put `it' into the heart of Judas of Simon, Iscariot, that he may deliver him up,
and these all, having been testified to through the faith, did not receive the promise,
For we have known that if our earthly house of the tabernacle may be thrown down, a building from God we have, an house not made with hands -- age-during -- in the heavens,
but, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice rather that your names were written in the heavens.'
The righteous hath perished, And there is none laying `it' to heart, And men of kindness are gathered, Without any considering that from the face of evil Gathered is the righteous one. He entereth into peace, they rest on their beds, `Each' is going straightforward.
I have given to them in My house, And within My walls a station and a name, Better than sons and than daughters, A name age-during I give to him That is not cut off.
Dead flies cause a perfumer's perfume To send forth a stink; The precious by reason of wisdom -- By reason of honour -- a little folly!
The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart, A good report maketh fat the bone.
There the wicked have ceased troubling, And there rest do the wearied in power.
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,