Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 7:29
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
29. They have sought out many inventions ] The Hebrew word implies an ingenuity exercised mainly for evil but takes within its range, as in 2Ch 26:15, the varied acts of life which are in themselves neither good nor evil. This inventive faculty, non-moral at the best, often absolutely immoral, was what struck the thinker as characterising mankind at large.
In this thought again we have an unmistakable echo of the language of Greek thinkers. Of this the most memorable example is, perhaps, the well-known chorus in the Antigone 332 5
.
,
, .
“Many the things that strange and wondrous are,
None stranger and more wonderful than man.
And lo, with all this skill,
Wise and inventive still
Beyond hope’s dream,
He now to good inclines
And now to ill.”
Looking to the relation in which the poem of Lucretius stands to the system of Epicurus it is probable that the history of human inventions in the De Rerum Natura, v. 1281 1435 had its fore-runner in some of the Greek writings with which the author of Ecclesiastes appears to have been acquainted. The student will find another parallel in the narrative of the progress of mankind in the Prometheus Bound of schylus (450 514). Both these passages are somewhat too long to quote.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
God hath made – Rather, God made. A definite allusion to the original state of man: in which he was exempt from vanity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ecc 7:29
God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
Man in his original and in his lapsed stage
I. God made man upright. Our text, then, teaches us that man was made in a state of perfect conformity to some rule. If it is asked, what rule? I answer, the law of God, for this is the only perfect, immutable and eternal rule to which God requires His creatures to be conformed, and in conformity to which rectitude or uprightness consists.
1. A state of perfect conformity to the Divine law implies the possession of an understanding perfectly acquainted with that law.
2. A state of perfect uprightness, or conformity to the Divine law, implies a memory which faithfully retains all its precept.
3. A state of perfect conformity to the Divine law implies a conscience which always faithfully applies it.
4. A state of perfect conformity to the Divine law implies a heart which perfectly loves that law.
5. A state of perfect conformity to the law of God implies a will perfectly obedient and submissive to that law; or, in other words, to the Divine government and authority.
6. There still remains one faculty possessed by man, which it is necessary to consider–that which is usually called the imagination. When man left the forming hand of his Maker, this faculty, like the others which we have mentioned, was entirely free from moral imperfection. Instead of filling the mind, as it now does, with vain thoughts, waking dreams, and worthless or sinful fancies, it presented nothing but holy images of spiritual and heavenly objects.
II. Though God made man thus upright, they have sought out many inventions.
1. Men have sought out or invented many new ways in which to walk, forsaking the good old way in which God originally placed them.
2. Men have forsaken the one living and true God, in whom they live, and move, and are, and sought out or invented innumerable false gods and created idols, to which they give that homage and attention which are due to Him alone.
3. Men have ceased to be conformed to the Divine law, and have sought out many other rules–rules more agreeable to their present sinful inclinations–by which to regulate and try their conduct. Some adopt for this purpose the laws of their country; others the opinion of some human teacher; while a third and more numerous class govern themselves by the maxims which pass currently in the society of which they happen to be members. Thus, in various ways, men measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves among themselves, and therefore are net wise; for while they follow these rules of human invention, they have lost all that uprightness, that conformity to the Divine law, which has been described.
4. Notice, among the inventions of sinful man the innumerable excuses, pleas and apologies which he has sought out to justify his conduct, and to make himself appear unfortunate, rather than criminal. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The original state of man, and the covenant of works
I. The natural form or constitution of man, as man. The primitive bodies of our first parents were not subject to the deformities and infirmities, the fatigues of labour, and the injuries of climates, or seasons, nor to distempers, violence and death which we are now exposed to; and no doubt but they were built with various beauties of due proportions, colour and form vastly superior to all that now appear in the ruins of human nature. But the chief glory of the natural form of man lies in his soul, which is an incorporeal, invisible and immortal, intelligent, free and active being, and so bears the natural image of God, as He is a Spirit. The bands of union between soul and body, and the way of their influencing and impressing one ,another, lie among the unsearchable mysteries of nature of which we have no ideas. But this we know, that by their union with each other to constitute a human person, the glories of the upper and lower worlds are in a sort epitomized and shadowed out in man.
II. His moral state or condition as an upright man.
1. With respect to his rectitude.
(1) His understanding was full of light.
(2) His will was perfectly holy and free.
(3) His affections and appetites were all pure and regular.
2. With respect to his happiness.
(1) He was a happy creature in the very constitution of his being as an innocent, upright man.
(2) He was a happy creature in his communion with God and sense of His favour.
(3) He was a happy creature in the pleasure of his situation, with the free use and government of all the creatures round about him.
III. The tenure by which or the terms upon which he was to hold this moral state. It was not entailed upon him by any absolute promise that he should continue in it; nor was it put upon a mere act of Divine sovereignty whether he should hold or lose it; the first would have left no room for a trial of his obedience, and the last would have taken away a grand article of his encouragement to that obedience and of his pleasure in it. But he was to hold it by a covenant of works, upon condition of perfect obedience to the end of that state of probation in which it became the wisdom of God to place him.
IV. The concern that all mankind had therein. He whom God created after His own image is to be considered as a public person, who was to hold or lose that happy state, not only for himself, but for all his natural offspring. Had he creed, we had all been blessed and confirmed in blessedness with him, as upon his fall, Scripture and experience assure us, we lost it with him. Use:–
1. This shows what dreadful work sin has made in the world.
2. This shows that all good is from God, and all evil from ourselves.
3. Let us be deeply affected with the present state of human nature.
4. Let us turn our eyes to the better covenant and the better Head which God has provided for our recovery. (J. Guyse, D. D.)
The state of innocence
I. The righteousness of this state wherein man was created. God made him upright.
1. This supposes a law to which he was conformed in his creation; as when anything is made regular, or according to rule, of necessity the rule itself is presupposed. Whence we may gather that this law was no other than the eternal, indispensable law of righteousness observed in all points by the second Adam, opposed by the carnal mind, and some notions of which remain yet among the Pagans, who, having not the law, are a law unto themselves (Rom 2:14).
(1) Mans understanding was a lamp of light. He had perfect knowledge of the lay, and of his duty accordingly: he was made after Gods image, and consequently could not want knowledge, which is a part thereof (Col 3:10).
(2) His will in all things was agreeable with the will of God (Eph 4:24).
(3) His affections were orderly, pure and holy.
2. From what has been said it may be gathered that the original righteousness explained was universal and natural, yet mutable.
(1) It was universal, both with respect to the subject of it, the whole man, and the object of it, the whole law. There was nothing in the law but what was agreeable to his reason and will, as God made him, though sin hath now set him at odds with it; his soul was shapen out in length and breadth to the commandment, though exceeding broad; so that his original righteousness was not only perfect in its parts, but in degrees.
(2) As it was universal, so it was natural to him, and not supernatural in that state. Not that it was essential to man, as man, for then he could not have lost it without the loss of his very being, but it was natural to him; he was created with it, and it was necessary to the perfection of man, as he came out of the hand of God, necessary to his being placed in a state of integrity.
3. It was mutable; it was a righteousness that might he lost, as is manifested by the doleful event. Let no man quarrel with Gods works in this; for if Adam had been unchangeably righteous, he must have been so either by nature or by free gift: by nature he could not be so, for that is proper to God, and incommunicable to any creature; if by free gift, then no wrong was done to him in withholding what he could not crave.
II. Some of those things which accompanied or flowed from the righteousness of mans primitive state. Happiness is the result of holiness; and as this was a holy, so it was a happy state.
1. Man was then a very glorious creature. There was no impurity to be seen without; no squint look in the eyes, after any unclean thing; the tongue spoke nothing but the language of heaven; and, in a word, the Kings son was all-glorious within, and his clothing of wrought gold.
2. He was the favourite of Heaven. While he was alone in the world he was not alone, for God was with him. His communion and fellowship were with his Creator, and that immediately; for as yet there was nothing to turn away the face of God from the work of His own hands, seeing sin had not as yet entered, which alone could make the breach.
3. God made him lord of the world, prince of the inferior creatures, universal lord and emperor of the whole earth. The Lord dealt most liberally and bountifully with him–put all things under his feet: only He kept one thing, one tree in the garden, out of his hands, even the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But you may say, and did He grudge him this? I answer, Nay; but when He had made him thus holy and happy, He graciously gave him this restriction, which was in its own nature a prop and stay to keep him from falling. And this I say upon these three grounds:–
(1) As it was most proper for the honour of God, who had made man lord of the lower world, to assert His sovereign dominion over all, by some particular visible sign, so it was proper for mans safety.
(2) This was a memorial of his mutable state given to him from heaven, to be laid up by him for his greater caution.
(3) God made man upright, directed towards God as his chief end. This fair tree, of which he was forbidden to eat, taught him that his happiness lay not in enjoyment of the creatures, for there was a want even in paradise: so that the forbidden tree was, in effect, the hand of all the creatures pointing man away from themselves to God for happiness. It was a sign of emptiness hung before the door of the creation, with the inscription, This is not your rest.
4. As he had a perfect tranquillity within his own breast, so he had a perfect calm without. His heart had nothing to reproach him with; conscience, then, had nothing to do but to direct, approve, and feast him; and, without, there was nothing to annoy him.
5. Man had a life of pure delight and unalloyed pleasure in this state. God placed him, not in a common place of the earth; but in Eden, a place eminent for pleasantness, as the name of it imports; nay, not only in Eden, but in the Garden of Eden; the mast pleasant spot of that pleasant place; a garden planted by God Himself, to be the mansion-house of this His favourite.
6. tie was immortal. He would never have died if he had not sinned; it was in case of sin that death was threatened (Gen 2:17), which shows it to be the consequence of sin, and not of the sinless human nature.
III. The doctrine of the state of innocence applied.
1. For information.
(1) Not God, but man himself was the cause of his ruin.
(2) God may most justly require of men perfect obedience to His law, and condemn them for their not obeying it perfectly, though now they have no ability to keep it. In so doing, He gathers but where He has sown.
(3) Behold here the infinite obligation we lie under to Jesus Christ the second Adam, who, with His own precious blood has bought our freedom, and freely makes offer of it again to us (Hos 13:9), and that with the advantage of everlasting security, and that it can never be altogether lost any more (Joh 10:28-29). Free grace will fix those whom free will shook down into the gulf of misery.
2. This conveys a reproof to three sorts of persons.
(1) To those who hate religion in the power of it, wherever it appears; and can take pleasure in nothing but in the world and in their lusts.
(2) It reproves those who put religion to shame, and those who are ashamed of religion, before a graceless world.
(3) It reproves the proud, self-conceited professor, who admires himself in a garment of rags which he has patched together.
3. Of lamentation. Here was a stately building; man carved like a fair palace, but now lying in ashes: let us stand and look on the ruins, and drop a tear. Ah, may we not now say, 0 that we were as in months past! when there was no stain in our nature, no cloud on our minds, no pollution in our hearts! Had we never been in better case, the matter had been less; but they that were brought up in scarlet do now embrace dunghills. Where is our primitive glory now? (T. Boston, D. D.)
Mans creation in a holy, but mutable, state
I. God endued the nature of man, in his creation, with a perfect and universal rectitude.
1. All created rectitude consists in conformity to some rule or law.
2. The highest rule of all created rectitude is the will of God, considered as including most intrinsically an eternal and immutable reason, justice and goodness.
3. Any sufficient signification of this will, touching the reasonable creatures duty, is a law, indispensably obliging such a creature.
4. The law given to Adam at his creation was partly natural, given by way of internal impression upon his soul; partly positive, given (as is probable) by some more external discovery or revelation.
5. Adam was endued in his creation with a sufficient ability and habitude to conform to this whole law, both natural and positive; in which ability and habitude his original rectitude did consist.
II. Mans defection from his primitive state was merely voluntary, and from the unconstrained choice of his own mutable and self-determining will.
1. The nature of man is now become universally depraved and sinful. This Scripture is full of (1Ki 8:46; Psa 14:1; Rom 3:10-19; Rom 3:23; Rom 5:12-13; Rom 5:17-19; 1Jn 5:19, etc.), and experience and common observation put it beyond dispute.
2. The pure and holy nature of God could never be the original of mans sin. This is evident in itself. God disclaims it; nor can any affirm it of Him without denying His very being (Deu 32:4; Psa 5:4; 3Jn 1:11).
3. It is blasphemous and absurd to talk of two principles (as the Manichees of old); the one good, and the cause of all good; the other evil, and the cause of all evil.
(1) This would suppose two Gods, two independent beings.
(2) It would suppose an evil God.
4. It was not possible that either external objects, or the temptation of the devil, should necessitate the will of man to sin.
5. The whole nature of sin consisting only in a defect, no other cause need be assigned of it than a defective; that is, an understanding, will, and inferior powers, however originally good, yet mutably and defectively so.
6. Man, being created mutable as to his holiness, must needs be so as to his happiness too. And that both upon a legal account (for the law had determined that if he did sin he must die), and also upon a natural; for it was not possible that, his soul being once depraved by sin, the powers of it vitiated, their order each to other and toward their objects broken and interrupted, there should remain a disposition and aptitude to converse with the Highest Good. (John Howe, M. A.)
Mans fall
I. Mans primitive innocence.
II. Mans acquired sin.
1. It is striking to observe that many inventions is in the plural. Righteousness is spoken of as oneness, singleness of heart. But the ways of sin are many.
2. These ways are of mans seeking–sought out. All men have followed the example of Adam, seeking ways of happiness beyond what God has prescribed for them. True happiness is only to be found in His service, and if man seeks it elsewhere he will be disappointed.
III. Lessons.
1. The folly of palliating our condition, or assuming a character we do not possess. A mans character may possess much that is lovely, but the best are fallen creatures.
2. The folly of casting the blame of our sinfulness on God. God originally made man upright.
3. The folly of supposing that we can recover ourselves from the fall.
4. The blessedness of comparing our own folly with the wisdom of God, and our present wretched condition with that which He has provided. He can restore and recover us through the sacrifice of Christ, and His vicarious atonement on our behalf. (Homilist.)
The fall
At first sight it would seem almost incredible that a being endowed and circumstanced as was Adam, probably informed that not only his own happiness, but that of an unnumbered posterity, depended on his obedience to a single command, should have signally failed in his probation, and provoked a curse which the least steadfastness might have averted. Our only business now, however, in examining this matter, is with the truth that God made man upright, and that in making him upright He had done enough for His creature. You may, indeed, say that God might have so constituted Adam that he should have been incapable of falling, and you may ask, Why was he not thus constituted? If you mean that human nature might have been such that to sin would have been impossible, we believe you to assert what is altogether incorrect. An incapacity of sinning is the property of no finite nature. The archangel, sublime in his prowess, is nevertheless finite–and what is finite may be measured and matched by temptation; add you must pass from the created to the uncreated, and bow down before Him who is every way infinite, ere you can find a being of whom to declare that he cannot sin because by nature inaccessible to evil. But then you will say, If not by nature, undoubtedly by grace, our first parents might have been prevented from yielding; grace in sufficient measure to maintain them in their obedience had been granted to many angels, and might, if God had seen fit, have been granted to man. Yes, it might; but grace, from its very nature, must be altogether free; God may give it or withhold it, according to His pleasure; and if there was no flaw in the original constitution of Adam, his powers having all that perfectness which consisted with creatureship, it could not have been at variance with any attribute of God to withhold that grace which should have kept him from falling. That God should have placed His creature in a share of probation, the trial being quite within the strength, and the reward of obedience unspeakably magnificent, you can imagine nothing more equitable, nothing more worthy every way of Deity; but there can be no probation where there is that prevention which you think might have been extended to Adam; if you allow it worthy of God to place His creature on trial, you make it indispensable that He should suffer him to fall. But if there still lurk a feeling in your minds–a feeling not to be met by argu-ment-that it was unlike a merciful God to permit His creature to work out for himself a heritage of woe and of shame, why, then, we call upon you to remember that, whilst allowing the evil, God had determined the antidote. I doubt not the glory of an unfallen man, I question not the splendour and loveliness of an unblighted paradise; very noble must Adam have been, and beautiful amidst the surrounding creation, when God conversed familiarly with man, and earth was as the shrine of its Maker; and sublime, indeed, would have been the spectacle, and majestic our inheritance, had each of us been born in the image of God, and secured against losing the resemblance; but I would not exchange what I am, if linked by faith with the Mediator Christ, for what I should have been bad Adam never transgressed. I know not what place would then have belonged to our nature amongst the orders of creation, but this I know, that now it is associated with the Divine, and imagination itself fails to measure its dignity. I know that by occupying my place, suffering and obeying in my stead, the Son of God has done vastly more than reinstate me in my forfeited possession: He has set me far above principalities and powers: He has opened to me happiness which is not to be reached by aught else created; He has brought me into a relationship with Deity, which could not have resulted from creation. Oh! then, to murmur because Adam was allowed to destroy us by his apostasy is to forget or deny that Christ redeemed us by His agony; to make it matter of complaint that we were suffered to fall is to repine at being placed unspeakably higher than we originally stood. It was not through any fault in his original constitution that Adam fell away. That constitution was, indeed, mutable, because Adam was a creature, and no created nature, not the very highest, can in itself be immutable. But there was no defect in Adam, unless you choose to reckon it a defect that he was finite. The understanding could immediately distinguish truth from error; the will was prompt to follow the verdict of the understanding; and the passions were all held in thorough subordination; so that, comparing the circumstances and the endowments of Adam, you may see that he possessed sufficient power for passing successfully through his probation, and that, having been created, he might, had he chosen, have continued in uprightness. Just, then, and true, and merciful was God in His dealings with the father of our race, for man could not have fallen had he not of his own will sought out inventions. This brief description has been applicable from the first. It was that they might be as gods, that they might know good and evil, that they might advance themselves in the scale of intelligence, for this it was that Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and set at nought the positive command. They tried the experiment, and, with all the consequences of failure, bequeathed to their children the fatal wish to invent good for themselves rather than seek it in God. The many inventions which we seek out; the schemes, even where there is the light of revelation, for being ourselves the authors, either in whole or in part, of our own deliverance, these are continued evidences that we are the children of those who even in paradise planned their own exaltation and thought to be wiser than God. We imitate our forefather, resolving to be ourselves the architects of our greatness, and therefore building on the quicksand; neglecting, as he did, the simple declarations of revelation, we take our own way of acquiring knowledge and learn it by being lost. Oh! for the spirit of St. Paul–I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I read the history of human transgression and ruin. I read it in the pages of Scripture; I read it in the throes and the convulsions of a disorganized world. I then turn to the record of redemption. I find that God has graciously taken into His own hands the work of my salvation. I learn that, though fallen, He is ready to exalt me; though corrupted, He is willing to purify, though worthy of condemnation, He offers me forgiveness and pardon. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 29. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright] Whatever evil may be now found among men and women, it is not of God; for God made them all upright. This is a singular verse, and has been most variously translated: asah haelohim eth haadam yashar vehemhah bikkeshu chishbonoth rabbim.
“Elohim has made mankind upright, and they have sought many computations.”
“He hath meddled with endless questions.” – VULGATE.
“Many reasonings.” – SEPTUAGINT, SYRIAC, and ARABIC.
“They seek dyverse sotylties.”COVERDALE.
And he himself mengide with questions without eend. – Old MS. Bible.
The Targum considers the text as speaking of Adam and Eve.
“This have I found out, that the Lord made the first man upright before him, and innocent: but the serpent and Eve seduced him to eat of the fruit of the tree, which gave the power to those who ate of it to discern between good and evil; and was the cause that death came upon him, and all the inhabitants of the earth; and they sought that they might find out many stratagems to bring this evil upon all the inhabitants of the world.”
I doubt much whether the word chishbonoth should be taken in a bad sense. It may signify the whole of human devices, imaginations, inventions, artifice, with all their products; arts, sciences, schemes, plans, and all that they have found out for the destruction or melioration of life. God has given man wondrous faculties; and of them he has made strange uses, and sovereign abuses: and they have been, in consequence, at one time his help, and at another his bane. This is the fair way of understanding this question.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This only have I found; though I could not find out all the streams of wickedness, and their infinite windings and turnings in the world, yet I have discovered the fountain of it, to wit, original sin, and the corruption of nature, which is both in men and women.
God hath made man, God made our first parents, Adam and Eve, upright, Heb. right, without any imperfection or corruption, conformable to his nature and will, which is the rule of right, after his own likeness, understanding, and holy, and every way good.
They, our first parents, and after them their posterity treading in their steps,
have sought out many inventions; were not contented with their present state, but aimed at higher things, and studied new ways of making themselves more wise and happy than God had made them, and readily hearkened to the suggestions of the devil to that end. And we their sinful and wretched children, after their example, are still prone to forsake the certain rule of Gods word, and the true way to happiness, and to seek new methods and inventions of attaining to it, even such as Solomon hath discoursed of in this book.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29. The “only” way ofaccounting for the scarcity of even comparatively upright men andwomen is that, whereas God made man upright, they (men) have, c. Theonly account to be “found” of the origin of evil, the greatmystery of theology, is that given in Holy Writ (Ge2:1-3:24). Among man’s “inventions” was the oneespecially referred to in Ec 7:26,the bitter fruits of which Solomon experienced, the breaking of God’sprimeval marriage law, joining one man to “one” woman(Mat 19:4 Mat 19:5;Mat 19:6). “Man” issingular, namely, Adam; “they,” plural, Adam,Eve, and their posterity.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright,…. The first man Adam, as the Targum and Jarchi interpret it; and not Adam only, but Eve also with him; for these were both made by the Lord, and on the same day, and in the same image, and had the same common name of Adam given them, Ge 1:27; And they were both made “upright”; which is to be understood, not of the erectness of their bodies, but of the disposition of their minds; they were
“right and innocent before him,”
or in the sight of God, as the Targum; which is best explained by their being made in the image and likeness of God, Ge 1:26; and which, according to the apostle, lay in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, Eph 4:24; agreeably to which Plato o make likeness to God to be righteous and holy, with prudence: for this likeness of Adam and Eve to God; lay not in the shape of their bodies, for God is a spirit, and not a corporeal being, as the Anthropomorphites imagined, and so fancied men to be made like unto him in this respect; but in their souls, and it consisted of knowledge; of the knowledge of the creatures, their nature, use, and ends for which they were made, and put under their government; and of God, and his perfections, as made known in the creatures; and of his mind and will, and manner of worshipping him, he revealed unto them; and they might know the trinity of Persons in the Godhead, who were concerned in the making of them, though they seem not to have known Christ, as Mediator and Saviour, which was not necessary previous to their fall; nor evangelical truths suited to a fallen state: also this image lay in righteousness and true holiness, which was original, natural, and created with them; it was with them as soon as they were; not acquired, but infused; not a habit obtained, but a quality given; and this not supernatural, but natural; it was perfect in its kind, and entirely agreeable to the holy, just, and good law of God; it had no defects in it, yet was but the righteousness of a creature, and loseable, as the event showed; and so very different from the righteousness of Christ, man is justified by. Likewise, this uprightness is no other than the rectitude of human nature, of all the powers and faculties of the soul of man, as they were when he was created; his understanding clear of all errors and mistakes, either about divine or human things; his affections regular and ordinate, no unruly passion in him, no sinful affection, lust, and desire; he loved God with all his heart and soul, and delighted in him, and communion with him; the bias of his will was to that which is good; the law of God was written on his heart, and he had both power and will to keep it; and, during his state of integrity, was pure and sinless; yet he was not impeccable, as the confirmed angels and glorified saints are; nor immutable, as God only is; but being a creature, and changeable, he was liable to temptation, and subject to fall, as he did. Now Solomon, with all his diligent search and scrutiny, could not find out the infinity of sin, the boundless extent of it among mankind, the exceeding sinfulness of it, which he sought after, Ec 7:25; yet this he “found” out, and this “only”, the fountain of all sin, the origin of moral evil; namely, the corruption of human nature through the fall of Adam: this he found by reading the Scriptures, the three first chapters of Genesis; and by consulting human nature he found some remains of the image of God, and of the law that was in man’s heart; whereby he perceived that man was once another man than he is now; and that this corruption is not owing to God, who is not the author of any thing sinful, he made man upright; but to himself, his own sin and folly: and this he found confirmed by sad experience; in himself and others, and by observing the history of all ages, from the times of the first man; and as this was notorious, it was worth knowing and observing, and therefore he calls upon others to take notice of it; lo, behold, consider it, as well as what follows;
but they have sought out many inventions; that is, Adam and Eve, not content with their present knowledge and happiness, they sought out new ways and means of being wiser and happier than God made them, or it was his will they should be. “They sought out the inventions of the many”, or “great things”, or “of the mighty and great ones” p, as it may be rendered, the eternal Three in One; they sought to be as wise as God himself; or, however, as the great and mighty ones, the angels, who excelled them, as in strength, so in knowledge; see Ge 3:5; or they sought out thoughts of sin, as Jarchi says it is interpreted in the Midrash. Sins are the inventions of men, and these are many and numerous; they sought to gratify their senses, on which followed innumerable evils; and then they sought for shifts and evasions to excuse themselves; the man shifting it from himself, and throwing the blame upon the woman, and the woman upon the serpent: and so sinning, they lost the knowledge they had; their righteousness and holiness, the rectitude of their nature; the moral freedom of their will to that which is good, and their power to perform it; and they lost the presence of God, and communion with him: and so their posterity are not only inventors of evil things, of sins, but of new ways of happiness; some placing it in riches; others in honours; others in pleasures; and some in natural wisdom and knowledge; and some in their own works of righteousness; the vanity of all which Solomon has before exposed.
o Theaeteto, p. 129. p “cogitationes magnatum”, De Dieu; “ratiocina multarum, magnarumque rerum”, so some in Rambachius; see Luke x. 41, 42.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Lo, this only have I found, that God created man upright; but they seek many arts.” Also here the order of the words is inverted, since , belonging as obj. to (have I found), which is restricted by , is amalgamated with (Lo! see!). The author means to say: Only this ( solummodo hocce ) have I found, that …; the is an interjected nota bene. The expression: God has made man , is dogmatically significant. Man, as he came from the Creator’s hand, was not placed in the state of moral decision, nor yet in the state of absolute indifference between good and evil; he was not neither good nor bad, but he was , or, which is the same thing, ; i.e., in every respect normal, so that he could normally develope himself from this positively good foundation. But by the expression ` , Koheleth has certainly not exclusively his origin in view, but at the same time his relative continuation in the propagation of himself, not without the concurrence of the Creator; also of man after the fall the words are true, , in so far as man still possesses the moral ability not to indulge sinful affections within him, nor suffer them to become sinful actions. But the sinful affections in the inborn nature of weak sinful man have derived so strong a support from his freedom, that the power of the will over against this power of nature is for the most part as weakness; the dominance of sin, where it is not counteracted by the grace of God, has always shown itself so powerful, that Koheleth has to complain of men of all times and in all circles of life: they seek many arts (as Luther well renders it), or properly, calculations, inventions, devices ( hhishshevonoth ,
(Note: If we derive this word from hheshbon , the Dagesh in the is the so-called Dag. dirimens.)
as at 2Ch 26:15, from hhishshevon , which is as little distinguished from the formation hheshbon , as hhizzayon from hhezyon ), viz., of means and ways, by which they go astray from the normal natural development into abnormities. In other words: inventive refined degeneracy has come into the place of moral simplicity, (2Ch 11:3). As to the opinion that caricatures of true human nature, contrasts between the actual and that which ought to be (the ideal), are common, particularly among the female sex, the author has testimonies in support of it from all nations. It is confirmed by the primitive history itself, in which the woman appears as the first that was led astray, and as the seducer (cf. Psychol. pp. 103-106). With reference to this an old proverb says: “Women carry in themselves a frivolous mind,” Kiddushin 80 b.
(Note: Cf. Tendlau’s Sprichw. (1860), No. 733.)
And because a woman, when she has fallen into evil, surpasses a man in fiendish superiority therein, the Midrash reckons under this passage before us fifteen things of which the one is worse than the other; the thirteenth is death, and the fourteenth a bad woman.
(Note: Duke’s Rabb. Blumenl. (1844), No. 32.)
Hitzig supposes that the author has before him as his model Agathoclea, the mistress of the fourth Ptolemy Philopator. But also the history of the Persian Court affords dreadful examples of the truth of the proverb: “Woe to the age whose leader is a woman;”
(Note: Ibid. No. 118.)
and generally the harem is a den of female wickedness.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3. A final observation: Men seek evil devices. Ecc. 7:29
TEXT 7:29
29
Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 7:29
222.
How many things did Solomon discover?
223.
What do you think is meant by the term upright?
224.
If many devices are the occasion for keeping man from being upright, what would be the nature of the many devices?
PARAPHRASE 7:29
Be sure to look at this! Only this one thing have I discovered: When God created man, He created him perfect. However, since the creation, man has invented many ways to fall short of what God intended him to be.
COMMENT 7:29
The use of the interjection behold suggests that Solomon wants the attention of his readers on this subject. Why is there the gravity at this particular point? Two things become apparent: First, God is not to blame for mans inability to discover wisdom. God made man upright, and in that state man was in a position to know and understand the things which are now hidden from him. Man cannot achieve complete wisdom, but it is his own fault. Second, man busies himself with innovative, vain speculation and self-wise reasonings which compete in his own mind with the true wisdom of God. Solomon is underscoring his previous contention that both men and women are evil.
The inventions of this verse are speculations or thoughts which result in a spiritual and sometimes physical stance which is contrary to Gods word. The one evil invention that Solomon cites in this entire passage is found in verse twenty-six. Here he speaks of the weakness of his own life. He speaks of the violation of the monogamous marriage situation in his own personal experience. The large number of both wives and concubines which he possessed defies the imagination. However, Solomon implies by the many devices that there are numerous ways to sin, many of which are unrelated to immoral sexual activity.
Man should both desire and be ready to receive the will of God for his life. He should not invent his own speculative philosophies. God approves of the wise man who allows God to speak to him. The promise has been given: Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you (Pro. 1:23). The word translated devices is used only twice in the Old Testament. The other reference is 2Ch. 26:15 where the devices or inventions were engines of war. These devices were clearly designed to shoot arrows and great stones at the enemy. They were also strategically located on the towers and on the corners to give maximum defense to the city. Such detail and cunning illustrates the ingenuity of the mind of man and demonstrates the variety of his inventiveness. The context under consideration, however, implies evil devices because they are set against the fact that God made man upright. Man was made to walk with God, but he fell from his high place of honor because of sin. Without grace and truth (Joh. 1:17) man continues to invent pathways of departure from the presence of God.
Solomons conclusion is the inevitable point to which all thinking men are drawn: all have sinned. The Apostle Paul concurs. He writes, we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one (Rom. 3:10-12).
FACT QUESTIONS 7:29
405.
Give two reasons why Solomon expresses gravity at this particular point.
406.
What is Solomon underscoring in this verse?
407.
Explain what is meant by devices or inventions.
408.
What one invention does Solomon cite?
409.
The word translated device is used elsewhere only in 2Ch. 26:15. From this passage, what does the use of the word illustrate?
410.
State Solomons conclusion.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
29. Man many inventions The one abiding and ever-true result of Koheleth’s search is this that the “inventions,” devices of man’s own heart, are enough to account for all the appalling wickedness of the race. No necessity to sin is framed into our original constitution, or laid upon us by the order of providence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 837
MANS ORIGINAL AND PRESENT STATE
Ecc 7:29. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
THE whole scope of this book is, to shew the vanity of the world, and all things in it. As in the earth itself there is a visible proof that some great convulsion has taken place; so, in every thing that is passing upon the earth, there is the clearest evidence imaginable that some great moral change has been effected: for it cannot possibly be, that the world, which still bears such innumerable traces of wisdom and goodness in its first creation, should have proceeded from its Makers hands in such a state as it now appears. In fact, the whole world is out of course. The very elements are, on many occasions, hostile to man; and man, in ten thousand instances, is an enemy to himself, to his species, and to his God. And what is thus crooked, who can make straight [Note: ver. 13.]? Who can ward off the effects of all this disorder from his own person or estate? A monarch is the victim of it, no less than the meanest of his subjects; and the saint, no less than the contemner of all true religion. To what, then, or to whom, shall we ascribe this state of things? The wisest philosophers of Greece and Rome were unable to account for it. But the Holy Scriptures inform us, that the whole creation, as originally formed, was perfect; but sin, entering into the world, effected both a natural and a moral change upon it: so that the man who looks into the Holy Scriptures can solve every difficulty at once, by saying, Lo, this have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions, and thereby reduced the world, and every thing in it, to the state of disorganization in which it now appears.
In illustration of my text, I shall be led to notice both the primitive and the present state of man, and to shew,
I.
His uprightness, as formed by God
We are expressly told, that God created man after his own image [Note: Gen 1:26-27.]. When, therefore, man came from his Creators hands, he was perfect.
1.
In his intellectual faculties
[His mind was light: and in him was no darkness at all, in reference to any thing which he was concerned to know. He had a clear knowledge of God, and of his perfections, so far as those perfections were stamped upon the visible creation. The wisdom, the goodness, the power of God, were all apprehended by him, and duly appreciated. He was acquainted also with his own nature, and his obligations to God: seeing the full extent of his duty towards him, as well as all the motives and inducements which he had for the performance of it. Moreover, he saw all these things intuitively, and not by long consideration or rational deduction. They were all stamped upon his very soul, and constantly before his eyes: and he had the same consciousness of them as he had of his own existence.]
2.
In his moral dispositions
[The Law of God was written upon his heart, that he might know it: and, at the same time, the love of it also was engraven there, so that he had not the slightest inclination to violate it in any one particular. It was no difficulty to him to love God with all his heart and mind and soul and strength: it was the very element in which he breathed: the bent of his soul was wholly towards it. Flame did not more naturally ascend in the atmosphere than did his soul, with all its powers, ascend to God. Dear as Eve was to him, she did not rival God in his affections. Every thing was subordinated to his Maker; nor was even a thought entertained in his mind, which had not a direct and immediate tendency to honour him. In a word, he was to God as the impression to the seal: nor was there found one lineament upon his heart which had not been stamped there by God himself.]
Had man continued thus, the whole creation would have retained its original constitution. But man fell; and brought a curse upon the whole world [Note: Gen 3:17.]: every thing more or less participating in,
II.
His obliquity, as deformed by sin
Man, through the instigation of Satan, desired to be wise as God himself. Not contented with knowing good, he would know evil also [Note: Gen 3:5-6.]; little thinking how impossible it was for light and darkness to exist together. Since that first device, whereby he fell, he has sought out many inventions; whereby to remedy, if possible, the first evil which he brought upon himself. Thus his descendants seek,
1.
How to rid themselves of all restraint from God
[They conceive of God, as resident in heaven; and as so remote from this vain world, as scarcely to take any notice of it, or concern himself about it. Besides, from a pretended regard for his glorious Majesty, they conceive it far beneath him to notice the affairs of men: so that the language of their hearts is, The Lord shall not see, neither will the Almighty regard it [Note: Psa 94:7.]. But, as they cannot be certain but that he does inspect their ways, they endeavour to get at as great a distance from him as possible. If at any time, by means of the preached word, or by any remarkable providence, he is brought nigh to them, they endeavour to shut their eyes, and to flee to any thing which may assist them in banishing him from their thoughts. To himself they say in effect, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways [Note: Job 21:14-15.]: and to his servants they say, Make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us [Note: Isa 30:11.]. It was thus that our first parents acted, when they strove to hide themselves from God in the midst of the garden: and thus do sinners of the present day act, fleeing to business and pleasure and company, and any thing that may serve to drive the remembrance of him from their minds. And he who could contrive any fresh amusement or employ that should have this effect upon their minds, would be accounted one of the greatest benefactors of the human race. That which is, in fact, their heaviest curse, is sought by them as the richest blessing; namely, to be without God in the world [Note: Eph 2:12.], and not to have him in all their thoughts [Note: Psa 10:4.].]
2.
How to make to themselves gods more suited to their taste
[Men feel that they must, of necessity, depend on something without them for their happiness, since they have no perennial source of it within themselves. But Jehovah is not one in whom they can find delight: hence, as the Israelites made a golden calf, and worshipped it, so these make to themselves objects of supreme regard, to which in heart and mind they cleave, as sources of satisfaction to their souls. Some, like the ignorant heathen, bow down to stocks and stones, and say, Ye are our gods [Note: Hos 14:3.]: others, with equal, though less palpable, absurdity, set their affections on the pleasures, riches, and honours of this life, making a god of their belly [Note: Php 3:19.], or putting their confidence in gold [Note: Col 3:5. Job 31:24-25.], or seeking the honour of man, rather than that which cometh of God only [Note: Joh 5:44.]. These all, in fact, forsake the fountain of living waters, and hew out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water [Note: Jer 2:13.], All, indeed, have not the same pursuit: but all have some idol in their hearts [Note: Eze 14:4.], which is to them a god: and all will walk in the name of that god [Note: Mic 4:5.], looking to it for happiness, and confiding in it for support. This is an invention, not peculiar to any age or place: it is sought out, and carried into effect, by every child of man; there not being a natural man upon the face of the whole earth who does not, in one shape or other, worship and serve the creature more than the Creator; who is blessed for evermore [Note: Rom 1:25.].]
3.
How to hide from themselves their own deformity
[One would suppose that the impiety of this conduct should appear at once to every man who is capable of the least reflection. But men contrive, by various arts, to hide it from themselves. They, in the first place, determinately call evil good, and good evil: they put darkness for light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter [Note: Isa 5:20.]. Then, not being able to conceal from themselves that they have committed some iniquity, they compare themselves, not with the word of God or with the saints of old, but with persons all around them: of these, however, they will select for the purpose those only whom they think not better than themselves: and thus will they satisfy themselves that they are as good as others. If there be some particular evils, of which their consciences accuse them, they will endeavour to find out some good deeds to put into the opposite scale, and to neutralize the effect of them upon their minds: or, if they cannot easily do this, they will satisfy themselves, that, though their actions have been evil, their intentions have been good: they have injured nobody but themselves; they have good hearts: and what they have done amiss, was not so much their own fault, as the fault of human-nature in general, and of the temptations to which they were exposed, and of the persons who were their associates in iniquity. Thus, as our first parents sought to hide their nakedness by fig-leaves [Note: Gen 3:7.], so do all men by nature strive, by every device they can think of, to hide from themselves, and from each other, their real state.]
4.
How to persuade themselves that all will issue well with them at the last
[They will not believe that eternal punishment can ever be inflicted on persons for such offences as theirs. God is too merciful to proceed in such a way. And, if he did, what must become of the whole world? All who die, are considered as having gone to their rest; and no one ever once thinks of them as in a state of misery. Why then should not they, when they die, go to their rest? or what reason can they have to apprehend that any misery awaits them? But, supposing that Gods threatenings were true, they intend to repent at some convenient season; and have no doubt but that a gracious God will avert his displeasure from them, in answer to their prayer It is possible, indeed, that they may be called away suddenly (as many are), and not have time to realize their good intentions: but then the suddenness of their removal will plead their excuse, and their purposes be accepted as though they had been performed.
Thus, by means of these inventions which men have sought out, they are kept in a constant state of delusion; wearying themselves in the pursuit of vanities which elude their grasp, and filling with vexation both themselves and all around them.]
We may see from hence,
1.
What is the true intent of the Gospel
[The Gospel is to remedy all this evil, and to restore man to the state of holiness and happiness from which he is fallen. It is to rectify our views of God, and make us see what a great and holy and gracious God he is. It is to make him known to us in the person of his Son, and to fill our souls with admiring and adoring thoughts of his love. It is to bring us also to the knowledge of ourselves, as lost and utterly undone; and to engage our whole souls in the service of our God, as his rightful property, his purchased possession.
Beloved Brethren, this is an invention of God; sought out by him; planned in his eternal counsels; and carried into effect on Mount Calvary: and, if duly received, it will be effectual to dissipate at once all our inventions. It will not indeed remove all the evils that abound in the world: there will yet remain much that is crooked, and that cannot be made straight; but it will sanctify those evils, and overrule them for our greater good: its operations, however, will be gradual, especially as far as relates to the restoration of the divine image on our souls. We shall be renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him that created us [Note: Col 3:10.]: we shall also be created, after Gods image, in righteousness and true holiness [Note: Eph 4:24.]: but then, in both respects, our light will be progressive, advancing like that of the sun, from its earliest dawn to its meridian height [Note: Pro 4:18.]. This is the change which the Gospel has wrought on millions of the human race: and that Gospel shall yet be found, by every true Believer, the power of God to the salvation of his soul.]
2.
How we may know whether it has produced its due effect upon us
[You have heard what it was intended to do; namely, to remove all the obliquity of our fallen nature, and to restore the uprightness in which we were at first created. These are therefore the points for you to inquire into, in order to form a just estimate of your state. Can you say, I have found this? And can you further say, that the delusions, by which the devil has formerly led you captive, are now dissipated and dispelled? Can you declare yet further, that the intellectual and moral qualities, which man originally possessed, are forming progressively within your souls? Here are marks which may easily be discerned; and which will with great accuracy determine, not only the truth, but also the measure, of the change that has taken place within you. Alas! alas! on far the greater part of us, it is to be feared, no such change as this has ever taken place at all. The greater part of us still live far from God; still have our affections fixed on things below; still are unhumbled before God; and buoying ourselves up with the vain hopes of future happiness, though there is no one lineament of the divine image formed upon our souls. If this be the case with you, my Brethren, deceive yourselves no longer; but to-day, while it is called to-day, cease to harden your hearts; and begin to seek the mercy which God has offered you in the Son of his love If however, after careful self-examination, you have an evidence of a work of grace upon your souls, then press forward for the attainment of more grace, and for a more perfect restoration to the divine image. If you do this in earnest, then even this present world will be less a scene of confusion to you than it was in your unconverted state; and, in the world to come, the glories of Paradise shall be for ever yours. You shall be admitted into the sweetest intercourse with your God; and be fully like him, because you shall see him as he is [Note: 1Jn 3:2.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
My soul! ponder well the many blessed truths contained in this Chapter, that thou mayest understand aright the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. Suspect thyself, and thine own heart, whenever the scriptures appear, at the first reading, with an aspect thou canst not immediately unfold. And do not forget to look up to God the Holy Ghost, the Author of his own most blessed word, who if any man lack wisdom, and will ask of God, giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. Yes! thou Almighty Teacher! under thy gracious instruction do I pray continually to come. Taught by thee, I shall find it profitable to go to the house of mourning rather than to the house of feasting. Taught of thee, I shall never find confidence in any supposed overmuch, righteousness. And taught of Thee, my soul will not despond in the otherwise overwhelming view of the multitude of my transgressions. But looking unto Jesus, whom thou art forever glorifying to my view in him, and his complete all-justifying righteousness, shall all my poor services be forgotten; and in his all-cleansing blood, shall all my sins be done away; and, like the iniquity of Judah, and of Israel, when sought for, shall not be found.
Precious Lord Jesus! increasingly precious be thou to my poor soul! Where, or to whom, should I look, but to thee, under the daily infirmities of a fallen nature, which even in justified souls, are breaking out continually. Oh! Lord! keep, I beseech thee, my eyes stedfastly fixed on thee. Cause me to look within the vail, whither as the forerunner of thy people, thou art entered! And let me never forget the infinite and eternal worth and excellency that there is in thy blood, though there be new defilements in my poor heart from day to day! Oh! cause me to remember thy never-failing Priesthood, and to take comfort from the assurance that thou, blessed Jesus, hast more to plead for thy redeemed before God and the Father, than their transgressions have to plead against them. And let me never lose the blessed sound in my ears of the gracious voice of God, in confirmation of the merits of thy blood and righteousness, in which he hath said, Deliver him from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
Ver. 29. That God hath made man upright, ] viz., In his own image – i.e., ” knowledge” in his understanding part, “rightness” in his will, and “holiness” in his affections: Col 3:10 his heart was a lump of love, &c., when he came first out of God’s mint, he shone most glorious, clad with the royal robe of righteousness, created with the imperial crown. Psa 8:5 But the devil soon stripped him of it; he cheated and robbed him of the crown, as we use to do children, with the apple, or whatsoever fruit it was that he tendered to Eve: Porrexit pomum et surripuit paradisum. a He also set his limbs in the place of God’s image, so that now, Is qui factus est homo differt ab eo quem Deus fecit, as Philo saith, man is now of another make than God made him. Totus homo est inversus decalogus, Whole evil is in man, and whole man in evil. Neither can he cast the blame upon God, but must fault himself, and flee to the second Adam for repair.
But they have sought out many inventions.
a Bernard, lib. i. Legis Allegor.
Lo. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6. Same as “Behold” in Ecc 7:27.
they = mankind: not merely the above classes. This verse is admittedly the inspired truth of God: so therefore are the other statements in this book. Moreover, “they” is emphatic.
inventions = devices.
God: Gen 1:26, Gen 1:27, Gen 5:1
they: The descendants of Adam have sought out an immense number of inventions, in order to find happiness in the world, without God, which have only proved so many variations of impiety and iniquity. Gen 3:6, Gen 3:7, Gen 6:5, Gen 6:6, Gen 6:11, Gen 6:12, Gen 11:4-6, Psa 99:8, Psa 106:29, Psa 106:39, Jer 2:12, Jer 2:13, Jer 4:22, Eze 22:6-13, Mar 7:8, Mar 7:9, Act 7:40-43, Rom 1:21-32, Rom 3:9-19, Eph 2:2, Eph 2:3, Tit 3:3
Reciprocal: Job 15:14 – is man Psa 14:3 – all gone Psa 33:15 – fashioneth Pro 19:21 – many Pro 21:8 – way Ecc 3:11 – hath made Eze 28:15 – till iniquity Rom 1:30 – inventors Rom 3:12 – They are
Ecc 7:29. Lo, this only have I found Though I could not find out all the streams of wickedness, and their infinite windings and turnings, yet I have discovered the fountain of it, original sin, and the corruption of nature, which is both in men and women; that God made our first parents, Adam and Eve, upright Hebrew, right: without any imperfection or corruption, conformable to his nature and will, after his own likeness: but they Our first parents, and after them their posterity; have sought out many inventions Were not contented with their present state, but studied new ways of making themselves more wise and happy than God had made them. And we, their wretched children, are still prone to forsake the certain rule of Gods word, and the true way to happiness, and to seek new methods of attaining it.
7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many {t} devices.
(t) And so are cause for their own destruction.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes