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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E C C L E S I A S T E S
CHAP. VIII.
Solomon, in this chapter, comes to recommend wisdom to us as the most
powerful antidote against both the temptations and vexations that arise
from the vanity of the world. Here is,
I. The benefit and praise of wisdom,
II. Some particular instances of wisdom prescribed to us.
1. We must keep in due subjection to the government God has set over us,
2. We must get ready for sudden evils, and especially for sudden death,
3. We must arm ourselves against the temptation of an oppressive
government and not think it strange,
The impunity of oppressors makes them more daring
(ver. 11),
but in the issue it will be well with the righteous and ill with the
wicked
(ver. 12, 13),
and therefore the present prosperity of the wicked and afflictions of
the righteous ought not to be a stumbling-block to us,
4. We must cheerfully use the gifts of God’s providence,
5. We must with an entire satisfaction acquiesce in the will of God,
and, not pretending to find the bottom, we must humbly and silently
adore the depth of his unsearchable counsels, being assured they are
all wise, just, and good,
| The Excellence of Wisdom; The Duty of Subjects. | |
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1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the
interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to
shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
2 I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that
in regard of the oath of God.
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil
thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may
say unto him, What doest thou?
5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a
wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.
Here is,
I. An encomium of wisdom
(v. 1),
that is, of true piety, guided in all its exercises by prudence and
discretion. The wise man is the good man, that knows God and glorifies
him, knows himself and does well for himself; his wisdom is a great
happiness to him, for,
1. It advances him above his neighbours, and makes him more excellent
than they: Who is as the wise man? Note, Heavenly wisdom will
make a man an incomparable man. No man without grace, though he be
learned, or noble, or rich, is to be compared with a man that has true
grace and is therefore accepted of God.
2. It makes him useful among his neighbours and very serviceable to
them: Who but the wise man knows the interpretation of a
thing, that is, understands the times and the events of them, and
their critical junctures, so as to direct what Israel ought to
do,
1 Chron. xii. 32.
3. It beautifies a man in the eyes of his friends: It makes his face
to shine, as Moses’s did when he came down from the mount; it puts
honour upon a man and a lustre on his whole conversation, makes him to
be regarded and taken notice of, and gains him respect (as
&c.); it makes him lovely and amiable, and the darling and blessing of
his country. The strength of his face, the sourness and severity
of his countenance (so some understand the last clause), shall be
changed by it into that which is sweet and obliging. Even those
whose natural temper is rough and morose by wisdom are strangely
altered; they become mild and gentle, and learn to look pleasant.
4. It emboldens a man against his adversaries, their attempts and their
scorn: The boldness of his face shall be doubled by wisdom; it
will add very much to his courage in maintaining his integrity when he
not only has an honest cause to plead, but by his wisdom knows how to
manage it and where to find the interpretation of a thing. He shall
not be ashamed, but shall speak with his enemy in the gate.
II. A particular instance of wisdom pressed upon us, and that is
subjection to authority, and a dutiful and peaceable perseverance in
our allegiance to the government which Providence has set over us.
Observe,
1. How the duty of subjects is here described.
(1.) We must be observant of the laws. In all those things wherein the
civil power is to interpose, whether legislative or judicial, we ought
to submit to its order and constitutions: I counsel thee; it may
as well be supplied, I charge thee, not only as a prince but as
a preacher: he might do both; “I recommend it to thee as a piece of
wisdom; I say, whatever those say that are given to change, keep the
king’s commandment; wherever the sovereign power is lodged, be
subject to it. Observe the mouth of a king” (so the phrase is);
“say as he says; do as he bids thee; let his word be a law, or rather
let the law be his word.” Some understand the following clause as a
limitation of this obedience: “Keep the king’s commandment, yet
so as to have a regard to the oath of God, that is, so as to
keep a good conscience and not to violate thy obligations to God, which
are prior and superior to thy obligations to the king. Render to
Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, but so as to reserve
pure and entire to God the things that are his.”
(2.) We must not be forward to find fault with the public
administration, or quarrel with every thing that is not just according
to our mind, nor quit our post of service under the government, and
throw it up, upon every discontent
(v. 3):
“Be not hasty to go out of his sight, when he is displeased at
thee
(ch. x. 4),
or when thou art displeased at him; fly not off in a passion, nor
entertain such jealousies of him as will tempt thee to renounce the
court or forsake the kingdom.” Solomon’s subjects, as soon as his head
was laid low, went directly contrary to this rule, when upon the rough
answer which Rehoboam gave them, they were hasty to go out of his
sight, would not take time for second thoughts nor admit proposals
of accommodation, but cried, To your tents, O Israel! “There may
perhaps be a just cause to go out of his sight; but be not
hasty to do it; act with great deliberation.”
(3.) We must not persist in a fault when it is shown us: “Stand not
in an evil thing; in any offence thou hast given to thy prince
humble thyself, and do not justify thyself, for that will make the
offence much more offensive. In any ill design thou hast, upon some
discontent, conceived against thy prince, do not proceed in it; but
if thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or hast thought
evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth,”
Note, Though we may by surprise be drawn into an evil thing, yet we
must not stand in it, but recede from it as soon as it appears to us to
be evil.
(4.) We must prudently accommodate ourselves to our opportunities, both
for our own relief, if we think ourselves wronged, and for the redress
of public grievances: A wise man’s heart discerns both time and
judgment
(v. 5);
it is the wisdom of subjects, in applying themselves to their princes,
to enquire and consider both at what season and in what manner they may
do it best and most effectually, to pacify his anger, obtain his
favour, or obtain the revocation of any grievous measure prescribed.
Esther, in dealing with Ahasuerus, took a deal of pains to discern
both time and judgment, and she sped accordingly. This may be taken
as a general rule of wisdom, that every thing should be well timed; and
our enterprises are then likely to succeed, when we embrace the
exact opportunity for them.
2. What arguments are here used to engage us to be subject to the
higher powers; they are much the same with those which St. Paul uses,
&c.
(1.) We must needs be subject, for conscience-sake, and that is
the most powerful principle of subjection. We must be subject because
of the oath of God, the oath of allegiance which we have taken
to be faithful to the government, the covenant between the king and
the people,
2 Chron. xxiii. 16.
David made a covenant, or contract, with the elders of
Israel, though he was king by divine designation,
“Keep the king’s commandments, for he has sworn to rule thee in
the fear of God, and thou hast sworn, in that fear, to be faithful to
him.” It is called the oath of God because he is a witness to it
and will avenge the violation of it.
(2.) For wrath’s sake, because of the sword which the prince
bears and the power he is entrusted with, which make him formidable:
He does whatsoever pleases him; he has a great authority and a
great ability to support that authority
(v. 4):
Where the word of a king is, giving orders to seize a man,
there is power; there are many that will execute his orders,
which makes the wrath of a king, or supreme government, like
the roaring of a lion and like messengers of death. Who may
say unto him, What doest thou? He that contradicts him does it at
his peril. Kings will not bear to have their orders disputed, but
expect they should be obeyed. In short, it is dangerous contending with
sovereignty, and what many have repented. A subject is an unequal
match for a prince. He may command me who has legions at
command.
(3.) For the sake of our own comfort: Whoso keeps the
commandment, and lives a quiet and peaceable life, shall feel no
evil thing, to which that of the apostle answers
(Rom. xiii. 3),
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power of the king? Do
that which is good, as becomes a dutiful and loyal subject, and
thou shalt ordinarily have praise of the same. He that does
no ill shall feel no ill and needs fear none.
| The Certainty of Death. | |
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6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment,
therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him
when it shall be?
8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain
the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and
there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness
deliver those that are given to it.
Solomon had said
(v. 5)
that a wise man’s heart discerns time and judgment, that is, a
man’s wisdom will go a great way, by the blessing of God, in moral
prognostications; but here he shows that few have that wisdom, and that
even the wisest may yet be surprised by a calamity which they had not
any foresight of, and therefore it is our wisdom to expect and prepare
for sudden changes. Observe,
1. All the events concerning us, with the exact time of them, are
determined and appointed in the counsel and foreknowledge of God, and
all in wisdom: To every purpose there is a time prefixed, and it
is the best time, for it is time and judgment, time appointed
both in wisdom and righteousness; the appointment is not chargeable
with folly or iniquity.
2. We are very much in the dark concerning future events and the time
and season of them: Man knows not that which shall be himself;
and who can tell him when or how it shall be?
v. 7.
It cannot either be foreseen by him or foretold him; the stars cannot
foretel a man what shall be, nor any of the arts of divination. God
has, in wisdom, concealed from us the knowledge of future events, that
we may be always ready for changes.
3. It is our great unhappiness and misery that, because we cannot
foresee an evil, we know not how to avoid it, or guard against it, and,
because we are not aware of the proper successful season of actions,
therefore we lose our opportunities and miss our way: Because to
every purpose there is but one way, one method, one proper
opportunity, therefore the misery of man is great upon him;
because it is so hard to hit that, and it is a thousand to one but he
misses it. Most of the miseries men labour under would have been
prevented if they could have been foreseen and the happy time
discovered to avoid them. Men are miserable because they are not
sufficiently sagacious and attentive.
4. Whatever other evils may be avoided, we are all under a fatal
necessity of dying,
v. 8.
(1.) When the soul is required it must be resigned, and it is to no
purpose to dispute it, either by arms or arguments, by ourselves, or by
any friend: There is no man that has power over his own
spirit, to retain it, when it is summoned to return to God who
gave it. It cannot fly any where out of the jurisdiction of death, nor
find any place where its writs do not run. It cannot abscond so as to
escape death’s eye, though it is hidden from the eyes of all living. A
man has no power to adjourn the day of his death, nor can he by prayers
or bribes obtain a reprieve; no bail will be taken, no essoine
[excuse], protection, or imparlance [conference], allowed. We have not
power over the spirit of a friend, to retain that; the
prince, with all his authority, cannot prolong the life of the most
valuable of his subjects, nor the physician with his medicines and
methods, nor the soldier with his force, not the orator with his
eloquence, nor the best saint with his intercessions. The stroke of
death can by no means be put by when our days are determined and the
hour appointed us has come.
(2.) Death is an enemy that we must all enter the lists with, sooner or
later: There is no discharge in that war, no dismission from it,
either of the men of business or of the faint-hearted, as there was
among the Jews,
While we live we are struggling with death, and we shall never put off
the harness till we put off the body, never obtain a discharge till
death has obtained the mastery; the youngest is not released as a
fresh-water soldier, nor the oldest as miles emeritus–a soldier
whose merits have entitled him to a discharge. Death is a battle
that must be fought, There is no sending to that war (so some
read it), no substituting another to muster for us, no champion
admitted to fight for us; we must ourselves engage, and are concerned
to provide accordingly, as for a battle.
(3.) Men’s wickedness, by which they often evade or outface the justice
of the prince, cannot secure them from the arrest of death, nor can the
most obstinate sinner harden his heart against those terrors. Though he
strengthen himself ever so much in his wickedness
(Ps. lii. 7),
death will be too strong for him. The most subtle wickedness cannot
outwit death, nor the most impudent wickedness outbrave death. Nay,
the wickedness which men give themselves to will be so far from
delivering them from death that it will deliver them up to death.
| The Evil of Oppressive Rulers. | |
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9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work
that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man
ruleth over another to his own hurt.
10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from
the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where
they had so done: this is also vanity.
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed
speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in
them to do evil.
12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be
prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that
fear God, which fear before him:
13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he
prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth
not before God.
Solomon, in the beginning of the chapter, had warned us against having
any thing to do with seditious subjects; here, in these verses, he
encourages us, in reference to the mischief of tyrannical and
oppressive rulers, such as he had complained of before,
1. He had observed many such rulers,
v. 9.
In the serious views and reviews he had taken of the children of men
and their state he had observed that many a time one man rules over
another to his hurt; that is,
(1.) To the hurt of the ruled (many understand it so); whereas they
ought to be God’s ministers unto their subjects for their good
to administer justice, and to preserve the public peace and order, they
use their power for their hurt, to invade their property, encroach upon
their liberty, and patronise the acts of injustice. It is sad with a
people when those that should protect their religion and rights aim at
the destruction of both.
(2.) To the hurt of the rulers (so we render it), to their own
hurt, to the feeling of their pride and covetousness, the
gratifying of their passion and revenge, and so to the filling up of
the measure of their sins and the hastening and aggravating of their
ruin. Agens agendo repatitur—What hurt men do to others will
return, in the end, to their own hurt.
2. He had observed them to prosper and flourish in the abuse of their
power
(v. 10):
I saw those wicked rulers come and go from the place
of the holy, go in state to and return in pomp from the place of
judicature (which is called the place of the Holy One because
the judgment is the Lord’s,
Deut. i. 17,
and he judges among the gods,
Ps. lxxxii. 1,
and is with them in the judgment,
2 Chron. xix. 6),
and they continued all their days in office, were never reckoned with
for their mal-administration, but died in honour and were buried
magnificently; their commissions were durante
vitâ—during life, and not quamdiu se bene
gesserint—during good behaviour. And they were forgotten in the
city where they had so done; their wicked practices were not
remembered against them to their reproach and infamy when they were
gone. Or, rather, it denotes the vanity of their dignity and power, for
that is his remark upon it in the close of the verse: This is also
vanity. They are proud of their wealth, and power, and honour,
because they sit in the place of the holy; but all this cannot
secure,
(1.) Their bodies from being buried in the dust; I saw them laid
in the grave; and their pomp, though it attended them thither, could
not descend after them,
Ps. xlix. 17.
(2.) Nor their names from being buried in oblivion; for they were
forgotten, as if they had never been.
3. He had observed that their prosperity hardened them in their
wickedness,
It is true of all sinners in general, and particularly of wicked
rulers, that, because sentence against their evil works is not
executed speedily, they think it will never be executed, and
therefore they set the law at defiance and their hearts are full in
them to do evil; they venture to do so much the more mischief,
fetch a greater compass in their wicked designs, and are secure and
fearless in it, and commit iniquity with a high hand. Observe,
(1.) Sentence is passed against evil works and evil workers by the
righteous Judge of heaven and earth, even against the evil works of
princes and great men, as well as of inferior persons.
(2.) The execution of this sentence is often delayed a great while, and
the sinner goes on, not only unpunished, but prosperous and successful.
(3.) Impunity hardens sinners in impiety, and the patience of God is
shamefully abused by many who, instead of being led by it to
repentance, are confirmed by it in their impenitence.
(4.) Sinners herein deceive themselves, for, though the sentence
be not executed speedily, it will be executed the more severely
at last. Vengeance comes slowly, but it comes surely, and wrath is in
the mean time treasured up against the day of wrath.
4. He foresaw such an end of all these things as would be sufficient to
keep us from quarrelling with the divine Providence upon account of
them. He supposes a wicked ruler to do an unjust thing a hundred
times, and that yet his punishment is deferred, and God’s patience
towards him is prolonged, much beyond what was expected, and the
days of his power are lengthened out, so that he continues to oppress;
yet he intimates that we should not be discouraged.
(1.) God’s people are certainly a happy people, though they be
oppressed: “It shall be well with those that fear God, I say
with all those, and those only, who fear before him.” Note,
[1.] It is the character of God’s people that they fear God,
have an awe of him upon their hearts and make conscience of their duty
to him, and this because they see his eye always upon them and they
know it is their concern to approve themselves to him. When they lie at
the mercy of proud oppressors they fear God more then they fear them.
They do not quarrel with the providence of God, but submit to it.
[2.] It is the happiness of all that fear God, that in the worst
of times it shall be well with them; their happiness in God’s
favour cannot be prejudiced, nor their communion with God interrupted,
by their troubles; they are in a good case, for they are kept in a good
frame under their troubles, and in the end they shall have a blessed
deliverance from and an abundant recompence for their troubles. And
therefore “surely I know, I know it by the promise of God, and
the experience of all the saints, that, however it goes with
others, it shall go well with them.” All is well that ends well.
(2.) Wicked people are certainly a miserable people; though they
prosper, and prevail, for a time, the curse is as sure to them as the
blessing is to the righteous: It shall not be well with the
wicked, as others think it is, who judge by outward appearance, and
as they themselves expect it will be; nay, woe to the wicked; it
shall be ill with them
they shall be reckoned with for all the ill they have done; nothing
that befals them shall be really well for them. Nihil potest ad
malos pervenire quod prosit, imo nihil quod non noceat–No event can
occur to the wicked which will do them good, rather no event which will
not do them harm. Seneca. Note,
[1.] The wicked man’s days are as a shadow, not only uncertain
and declining, as all men’s days are, but altogether unprofitable. A
good man’s days have some substance in them; he lives to a good
purpose. A wicked man’s days are all as a shadow, empty and
worthless.
[2.] These days shall not be prolonged to what he promised
himself; he shall not live out half his days,
Ps. lv. 23.
Though they may be prolonged
(v. 12)
beyond what others expected, yet his day shall come to fall. He shall
fall short of everlasting life, and then his long life on earth will be
worth little.
[3.] God’s great quarrel with wicked people is for their not fearing
before him; that is at the bottom of their wickedness, and cuts
them off from all happiness.
| The Mysteries of Providence. | |
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14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there
be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of
the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth
according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also
is vanity.
15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing
under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for
that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life,
which God giveth him under the sun.
16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the
business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that
neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find
out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man
labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further;
though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able
to find it.
Wise and good men have, of old, been perplexed with this difficulty,
how the prosperity of the wicked and the troubles of the righteous can
be reconciled with the holiness and goodness of the God that governs
the world. Concerning this Solomon here gives us his advice.
I. He would not have us to be surprised at it, as though some strange
thing happened, for he himself saw it in his days,
1. He saw just men to whom it happened according to the work of the
wicked, who, notwithstanding their righteousness, suffered very
hard things, and continued long to do so, as if they were to be
punished for some great wickedness.
2. He saw wicked men to whom it happened according to the work of
the righteous, who prospered as remarkably as if they had been
rewarded for some good deed, and that from themselves, from God, from
men. We see the just troubled and perplexed in their own minds, the
wicked easy, fearless, and secure,–the just crossed and afflicted by
the divine Providence, the wicked prosperous, successful, and smiled
upon,–the just, censured, reproached, and run down, by the higher
powers, the wicked applauded and preferred.
II. He would have us to take occasion hence, not to charge God with
iniquity, but to charge the world with vanity. No fault is to be found
with God; but, as to the world, This is vanity upon the earth,
and again, This is also vanity, that is, it is a certain
evidence that the things of this world are not the best things nor were
ever designed to make a portion and happiness for us, for, if they had,
God would not have allotted so much of this world’s wealth to his worst
enemies and so much of its troubles to his best friends; there must
therefore be another life after this the joys and griefs of which must
be real and substantial, and able to make men truly happy or truly
miserable, for this world does neither.
III. He would have us not to fret and perplex ourselves about it, or
make ourselves uneasy, but cheerfully to enjoy what God has given us in
the world, to be content with it and make the best of it, though it be
much better with others, and such as we think very unworthy
(v. 15):
Then I commended joy, a holy security and serenity of mind,
arising from a confidence in God, and his power, providence, and
promise, because a man has no better thing under the sun (though
a good man has much better things above the sun) than to eat
and drink, that is, soberly and thankfully to make use of the
things of this life according as his rank is, and to be
cheerful, whatever happens, for that shall abide with him of his
labour. That is all the fruit he has for himself of the pains that
he takes in the business of the world; let him therefore take it, and
much good may it do him; and let him not deny himself that, out of a
peevish discontent because the world does not go as he would have it.
That shall abide with him during the days of his life which
God gives him under the sun. Our present life is a life under
the sun, but we look for the life of the world to come,
which will commence and continue when the sun shall be turned into
darkness and shine no more. This present life must be reckoned by
days; this life is given us, and the days of it are allotted to us, by
the counsel of God, and therefore while it does last we must
accommodate ourselves to the will of God and study to answer the ends
of life.
IV. He would not have us undertake to give a reason for that which God
does, for his way is in the sea and his path in the great
waters, past finding out, and therefore we must be contentedly and
piously ignorant of the meaning of God’s proceedings in the government
of the world,
Here he shows,
1. That both he himself and many others had very closely studied the
point, and searched far into the reasons of the prosperity of the
wicked and the afflictions of the righteous. He, for his part, had
applied his heart to know this wisdom, and to see the
business that is done, by the divine Providence, upon the
earth, to find out if there were any certain scheme, any constant
rule or method, by which the affairs of this lower world were
administered, any course of government as sure and steady as the course
of nature, so that by what is done now we might as certainly foretel
what will be done next as by the moon’s changing now we can foretel
when it will be at the full; this he would fain have found out. Others
had likewise set themselves to make this enquiry with so close an
application that they could not find time for sleep, either day or
night, nor find in their hearts to sleep, so full of anxiety were
they about these things. Some think Solomon speaks of himself, that he
was so eager in prosecuting this great enquiry that he could not sleep
for thinking of it.
2. That it was all labour in vain,
When we look upon all the works of God and his providence, and
compare one part with another, we cannot find that there is any
such certain method by which the work that is done under the sun
is directed; we cannot discover any key by which to decipher the
character, nor by consulting precedents can we know the practice of
this court, nor what the judgment will be.
[1.] Though a man be ever so industrious, thou he labour to
seek it out.
[2.] Though he be ever so ingenious, though he be a wise
man in other things, and can fathom the counsels of kings
themselves and trace them by their footsteps. Nay,
[3.] Though he be very confident of success, though he think to know
it, yet he shall not; he cannot find it out. God’s ways are
above ours, nor is he tied to his own former ways, but his judgments
are a great deep.
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