NOTES for Ecc 8:1-17
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. |
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. |
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 an 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. |
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. |
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Long reflection, as it appears, finally led Ecclesiastes to the conclusion that it is impossible to understand the meaning of the events that happen in the world, and that this meaning is clear only to God, not to human beings (vv. 16-17). The value of wisdom is not that it explains everything in the world, but that it changes the person himself (v. 1). And the only thing worth living for is joy ("merriment"), the joy that fellowship at table with those close to us and in the presence of God can give. The corresponding Hebrew word used in the text means precisely the joy a person experiences in God's presence.
Of course, little depends on a person here, since such joy is given by God, and it has little connection with the merriment of fools condemned by the sages of antiquity; the resemblance is purely outward. But joy in God is possible only when a person is ready to observe the Torah and preserve wisdom. It is in this sense that Ecclesiastes says of the wise person that he will experience no evil (v. 5). Such a person is ready for any turn of fate, and although no one has power over his own life and no one can change anything in it (vv. 6-8), the wise person is not afraid of surprises.
For Ecclesiastes, wickedness, as it appears, is first of all connected with the desire to avoid something the wicked perceive as evil (v. 8), but he clearly understands the ultimate barrenness of such attempts (vv. 12-13). That is why Ecclesiastes appears to insist on conscientiousness and honesty in matters of state service: the point is not only that other behavior is imprudent and dangerous, but also that by behaving otherwise a person violates oaths given before God, deceiving not only the king but also God (vv. 2-4). Of course, because punishment for sin does not fall on the sinner immediately, many think it can be avoided altogether (v. 11). Yet according to Ecclesiastes it is still inevitable (vv. 12-13).
Still, it remains not entirely clear what this inevitability consists of in this case. According to Ecclesiastes, the wicked and their deeds are soon forgotten (v. 10). But a little earlier he said the same about good deeds that deserve to be remembered (Eccl. 4:15-16). As for rewards and punishments in this world, Ecclesiastes has no illusions about justice: far too often the righteous receive what the wicked deserve, and the reverse also happens (v. 14). Apparently, the only punishment for the wicked is the impossibility of that joy in God which is available to the righteous. In that case righteousness, like wisdom, proves to be a reward in itself, and acquiring wisdom, like righteous living, becomes an end in itself.
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