Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 6:6

Yea, though he live a thousand years twice [told], yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

6. Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told ] The weariness of life carries the thinker yet further. Carry it to the furthest point conceivable, and still the result is the same. The longer it is, the fuller of misery and woe. The thought finds, as before, a parallel in the speech of Solon to Crsus (Herod. i. 32). The man goes to the same place, to the dark, dreary world of Sheol, perhaps even to a more entire annihilation than was implied in the Hebrew thought of that unseen world, as the abortive birth, with nothing but an accumulated experience of wretchedness. Depression could go no further. See the poem of Omar Khayyam in the Appendix.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

He live – Rather, he hath lived. He refers to the man Ecc 6:3. His want of satisfaction in life, and the dishonor done to his corpse, are regarded as such great evils that they counterbalance his numerous children, and length of days, and render his lot viewed as a whole no better than the common lot of all.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Ecc 6:6

Do not all go to one place?

All mens place

Do you know what the wise man means when he offers this question to your consideration, Do not all go to one place? The thing, no doubt, here spoken of is death; the place here spoken of, no doubt, is the grave. An amazing consideration! part of the first sentence that the great and holy God ever denounced against fallen man, to one and all, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. But in another case we may venture to contradict even Solomon: for ii we consider the words of our text in another view, all do not go to one place; it is true, all are buried in the grave either of earth or water, but then after death comes judgment; death gives the decisive, the separating blow. Suppose, then, in our enlarging on the text, we should confine the word all to the unregenerate; these, indeed, die when they will, all go to one place. O awful thought I and yet it is n certain truth, all on earth must go to one place; if we live like devils here, we must go to, and be with them, when we die, for ever! A blessed minister of Christ, in Scotland, told me a story he knew for truth, of a dreadful answer a poor creature gave on her deathbed. This person when dying was asked by a minister, Where do you hope to go when you die? Says she, I do not care where I go. What, says he, do not you care whether you go to heaven or hell? No, says she; I do not care whither I go. But, says he, if you were put to your choice, where would you go? Says she, To hell. To that he replied, Are you mad–will you go to hell? Yes, says she, I will. Why so? says he. Why, says she, all my relations are there. But I have another place to tell you of, and another sort of people to speak of, who shall all, as well as those I have spoken of, go to one place; blessed is it to live in God. When death closes the eyes, an actual separation is made, and instead of hearing Depart, ye cursed, they will hear, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. If you ask where that place is? I answer, to heaven; if you ask to whom they shall go? I answer, to the spirits of just men made perfect; and, what will be best of all, to Jesus Christ, the heavenly inheritance. If we were not to go to Him, what would heaven be? If we were not to see Him, what would glory be? (G. Whitefield, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Live a thousand years twice told; wherein he seems to have a privilege above an untimely birth. Hath he seen no good; he hath enjoyed little or no comfort in it, and therefore long life is rather a curse and mischief than a blessing or advantage to him.

Do not all, whether born out of and before their time, or in due time, whether their lives be long or short,

go to one place; to the grave. And so after a little time all are alike as to this life, of which he here speaks; and as to the other life, his condition is infinitely worse than that of an untimely birth.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. If the miser’s length of”life” be thought to raise him above the abortive, Solomonanswers that long life, without enjoying real good, is but lengthenedmisery, and riches cannot exempt him from going whither “allgo.” He is fit neither for life, nor death, nor eternity.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Yea, though he live a thousand years twice [told],…. Or two thousand years, which no man ever did, nor even one thousand years; Methuselah, the oldest man, did not live so long as that; this is than twice the age of the oldest man: there is one sort of the Ethiopians, who are said a to live almost half space of time longer than usual, called from thence Macrobii; which Pliny b makes to be one hundred and forty years, which is just double the common term of life. This here is only a supposition. Aben Ezra interprets it, “a thousand thousand”, but wrongly; so the Arabic version, “though he lives many thousand years”;

yet hath he seen no good, not enjoyed the good of his labour, what he has been labouring for and was possessed of; and therefore has lived so long as he has to very little purpose, and with very little comfort or credit; and especially he has had no experience of spiritual good;

do not all go to one place? that is, the grave; they do, even all men; it is the house appointed for all living, Job 30:23; and hither go both the abortive, and the covetous rich man; so that he has in this no pre-eminence to it. Jarchi interprets it of hell, the one place, whither all sinners go; but the former sense is best.

a Mela tie Situ Orbis, l. 3. c. 9. b Nat. Hist. 1. 7. c. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

A life extending to more than even a thousand years without enjoyment appears to him worthless: “And if he has lived twice a thousand years long, and not seen good – Do not all go hence to one place?” This long period of life, as well as the shortest, sinks into the night of Sheol, and has advantage over the shortest if it wants the , i.e., the enjoyment of that which can make man happy. That would be correct if “good” were understood inwardly, ethically, spiritually; but although, according to Koheleth’s view, the fear of God presides over the enjoyment of life, regulating and hallowing it, yet it remains unknown to him that life deepened into fellowship with God is in itself a most real and blessed, and thus the highest good. Regarding (here, as at Est 7:4, with perf. foll.: etsi vixisset, tamen interrogarem: nonne , etc.); it occurs also in the oldest liturgical Tefilla, as well as in the prayer Nishmath ( vid., Baer’s Siddur, Abodath Jisrael, p. 207). … , a thousand years twice, and thus an Adam’s life once and yet again. Otherwise Aben Ezra: 1000 years multiplied by itself, thus a million, like , 20 x 20 = 400; cf. Targ. Isa 30:26, which translates by 343 = 7 x 7 x 7. Perhaps that is right; for why was not the expression directly used? The “one place” is, as at Ecc 3:20, the grave and Hades, into which all the living fall. A life extending even to a million of years is worthless, for it terminates at last in nothing. Life has only as much value as it yields of enjoyment.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(6) Though.The conjunction here used is only found again in Est. 7:4.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

6. Seen no good The antithesis of this verse is really after the word “good,” and the question balances all that precedes. Does not his long, joyless life go out in gloom at last, as much as that of the abortion?

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ecc 6:6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice [told], yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

Ver. 6. Yea, though he live a thousand years. ] Which yet never any man did; Methuselah wanted thirty-two of a thousand. – The reason thereof is given by Oecolampadius; ” Quia numerus iste typum habeat perfectionis, ut qui constet e centenario decies revoluto, ” because the number of a thousand types out perfection, as consisting of a hundred ten times told. But there is no perfection here, saith he.

Yet hath he seen no good. ] For, “all the days of the afflicted are evil,” saith Solomon. Pro 15:15 And man’s days are “few and full of trouble,” saith Job. Job 14:1 “Few and evil are the days of my pilgrimage,” saith Jacob, Gen 47:9 “and I have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers.” For Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years, and Isaac one hundred and eighty – near upon forty years longer than Jacob, but to his small comfort, for he was blind all that time; yet nothing so blind as the rich wretch in the text, qui privatus interno lumine, tamen in hac vita diu vult perpeti caecitatem suam, as one speaketh, who being blind as a mole, lies rooting and poring incessantly in the bowels of the earth – as if he would that way dig himself a new and a nearer way to hell – and with his own hands addeth to the load of this miserable life. As he hath done no good, so he hath seen or enjoyed none; but goes to his place (do not all go to one place?) – the place that Adam provided for all his posterity, the house appointed for all living, as Job calls it, Job 30:23 the congregation house, as one renders it. Heaven the apostle calls the congregation house , Heb 12:23 of the firstborn, whose names also are there said to be written in heaven: but covetous persons, as they are called “the inhabitants of the earth,” Rev 12:12 in opposition to those coelicolae, citizens of heaven, the saints; so their names are “written in the earth,” Jer 17:13 “because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters,” and “hewed them out cisterns that can hold no water.” Jer 2:13 What marvel, then, if they live long, and yet see no good? if they are driven to that doleful complaint that Saul made, “God hath forsaken me, and the Philistines are upon me,” 1Sa 28:15 – sickness, death, hell is upon me, I am even now about to make my bed in the dark, and all the comfort I can have from God is that dismal sentence, “This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.” Isa 50:11 Lo, this is the cursed condition of the covetous churl; as he hath lived beside his goods, having jaded his body, broken his brains, and burdened his conscience, so he dies hated of God, and loathed of men; the earth groans under him, heaven is shut against him, hell gapes for him. 1Co 6:8-9 Php 3:18 Thus many a miser spins a fair thread to strangle himself, both temporally and eternally. Oh that they would seriously think of this before the cold grave hold their bodies, and hot hell torment their souls! before death come with a writ of Habeas corpus, Let you have the body, and the devil with a writ of Habeas animam, Let you have the soul, as once to that rich fool. Luk 12:16-21

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

do not all. ? Figure of speech Erotesis (in Affirmation), App-6. Compare Ecc 3:19-21.

one place: i.e. Sheol. App-35.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

though: Gen 5:5, Gen 5:23, Gen 5:24, Isa 65:22

yet: Ecc 6:3, Job 7:7, Psa 4:6, Psa 4:7, Psa 34:12, Isa 65:20, Jer 17:6

do: Ecc 3:20, Ecc 12:7, Job 1:21, Job 30:23, Heb 9:27

Reciprocal: Ecc 11:8 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge