Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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Ecclesiastes

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9

Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

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AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF

E C C L E S I A S T E S.

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We are still among Solomon’s happy men, his happy servants, that

stood continually before him to hear his wisdom; and they are

the choicest of all the dictates of his wisdom, such as were more

immediately given by divine inspiration, that are here transmitted to

us, not to be heard, as by them, but once, and then liable to be

mistaken or forgotten, and by repetition to lose their beauty, but to

be read, reviewed, revolved, and had in everlasting remembrance. The

account we have of Solomon’s apostasy from God, in the latter end of

his reign

(1 Kings xi. 1),

is the tragical part of his story; we may suppose that he spoke his

Proverbs in the prime of his time, while he kept his integrity,

but delivered his Ecclesiastes when he had grown old (for of the

burdens and decays of age he speaks feelingly

ch. xii.),

and was, by the grace of God, recovered from his backslidings. There he

dictated his observations; here he wrote his own experiences; this is

what days speak, and wisdom which the multitude of years teaches. The

title of the book and the penman we shall meet with in the

first verse,

and therefore shall here only observe,

     

I. That it is a sermon, a sermon in print; the text is

(ch. i. 2),

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity; that is the doctrine too; it

is proved at large by many arguments and an induction of particulars,

and divers objections are answered, and in the close we have the use

and application of all, by way of exhortation, to remember our

Creator, to fear him, and to keep his commandments.

There are indeed many things in this book which are dark and hard to be

understood, and some things which men of corrupt minds wrest to

their own destruction, for want of distinguishing between Solomon’s

arguments and the objections of atheists and epicures; but there is

enough easy and plain to convince us (if we will admit the conviction)

of the vanity of the world, and its utter insufficiency to make us

happy, the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make us

miserable, and of the wisdom of being religious, and the solid comfort

and satisfaction that are to be had in doing our duty both to God and

man. This should be intended in every sermon, and that is a good sermon

by which these points are in any measure gained.

II. That it is a penitential sermon, as some of David’s psalms are

penitential psalms; it is a recantation-sermon, in which the preacher

sadly laments his own folly and mistake, in promising himself

satisfaction in the things of this world, and even in the forbidden

pleasures of sense, which now he finds more bitter than death. His fall

is a proof of the weakness of man’s nature: Let not the wise man

glory in his wisdom, nor say, “I shall never be such a fool as to

do so and so,” when Solomon himself, the wisest of men, played the fool

so egregiously; nor let the rich man glory in his riches, since

Solomon’s wealth was so great a snare to him, and did him a great deal

more hurt than Job’s poverty did him. His recovery is a proof of the

power of God’s grace, in bringing one back to God that has gone so far

from him; it is a proof too of the riches of God’s mercy in accepting

him notwithstanding the many aggravations of his sin, pursuant to the

promise made to David, that if his children should commit iniquity they

should be corrected, but not abandoned and disinherited,

2 Sam. vii. 14, 15.

Let him therefore that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall; and let

him that has fallen make haste to get up again, and not despair either

of assistance or acceptance therein.

III. That it is a practical profitable sermon. Solomon, being brought

to repentance, resolves, like his father, to teach transgressors God’s

way

(Ps. li. 13)

and to give warning to all to take heed of splitting upon those rocks

which had been fatal to him; and these were fruits meet for repentance.

The fundamental error of the children of men, and that which is at the

bottom of all their departures from God, is the same with that of our

first parents, hoping to be as gods by entertaining themselves with

that which seems good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to

make one wise. Now the scope of this book is to show that this is a

great mistake, that our happiness consists not in being as gods to

ourselves, to have what we will and do what we will, but in having him

that made us to be a God to us. The moral philosophers disputed much

about man’s felicity, or chief good. Various opinions they had about

it; but Solomon, in this book, determines the question, and assures us

that to fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole of man. He

tried what satisfaction might be found in the wealth of the world and

the pleasures of sense, and at last pronounced all vanity and vexation;

yet multitudes will not take his word, but will make the same dangerous

experiment, and it proves fatal to them. He,

1. Shows the vanity of those things in which men commonly look for

happiness, as human learning and policy, sensual delight, honour and

power, riches and great possessions. And then,

2. He prescribes remedies against the vexation of spirit that attends

them. Though we cannot cure them of their vanity, we may prevent the

trouble they give us, by sitting loose to them, enjoying them

comfortable, but laying our expectations low from them, and acquiescing

in the will of God concerning us in every event, especially by

remembering God in the days of our youth, and continuing in his fear

and service all our days, with an eye to the judgment to come.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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