Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 11:9
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment.
9. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ] Strictly speaking, as the beginning of the end, the opening of the finale of the book, these should be read in close connexion with chap. 12. The Debater turns with his closing counsel to the young. That counsel, like the rest of the book, has been very variously interpreted. (1) Men have seen in it the stern irony of the ascetic, killing the power of rejoicing in the very act of bidding men rejoice, holding before the young man the terrors of the Lord, the fires of Gehenna. Coarsely paraphrased, the counsel so given is practically this, “Follow your desires, take your fling, sow your wild oats, go forth on the voyage of life, ‘youth at the prow and pleasure at the helm,’ but know that all this, the ‘primrose path of dalliance,’ ends in Hell and its eternal fires.” It is not without significance, from this point of view, that the counsel given is almost in direct contradiction to the words of the Law, brought, we may believe, into notice by the growing stress laid on the use of phylacteries, on which those words were written, which warned men that they should not “seek after their own heart and their own eyes” (Num 15:39). (2) Men have also seen in it the unchastened counsel of the lowest form of Epicureanism, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Leave no desire ungratified, seek the maximum of intense enjoyment, crowd the sensations of a life-time into a few short years.” (3) Even the closing words have, by a strange ingenuity, been turned into a protest against asceticism. “God will judge you, if you slight His gifts. Self-denial is for Him no acceptable service. He rejoices in your joy, will punish the gloomy Pharisee or Essene who mortifies the flesh, by leaving him to his self-inflicted tortures.” Once again men have looked at the shield on its gold or its silver side: and the Truth is found in seeing it on both. Once again we may recognise the method of one who spoke (“full of meaning to those who have eyes to see”), and uttered his precepts with a double sense as a test of the character of those who heard or read them. The true purport of the words seems to be as follows. After the manner of chs. Ecc 2:24, Ecc 3:12; Ecc 3:22, Ecc 5:18, Ecc 9:7, the Debater falls back on the fact that life is after all worth living, that it is wise to cultivate the faculty of enjoyment in the season when that faculty is, in most cases, as by a law of nature, strong and capable of being fashioned into a habit. So moralists in our own time, preachers of “sweetness and light,” have contrasted the gloomy plodding Philistinism or Puritanism of the English as a people, “ qui s’amusent moult (= bien) tristement ” (Froissart), with the brightness and gaiety of the French, and have urged us to learn wisdom from the comparison. In good faith he tells the young man to “rejoice in his youth,” to study the bent of his character, what we should call his sthetic tastes, but all this is not to be the reckless indulgence of each sensuous impulse, but to be subject to the thought “God will bring thee into judgment.” What the judgment may be the Debater does not define. It may come in the physical suffering, the disease, or the poverty, or the shame, that are the portion of the drunkard and the sensualist. It may come in the pangs of self-reproach, and the memory of the “ mala mentis gaudia.” “The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make whips to scourge us.” It is singularly significant to find an echo of the precept so given in the teaching of the great Poet of the more atheistic type of Epicureanism, obliged, as in spite of himself, to recognise the fact of a moral order in the world:
“Inde metus maculat pnarum prmia vit.
Circumretit enim vis atque injuria quemque,
Atque, unde exorta est, ad eum plerumque revertit;
Nec facile est placidam ac pacatam degere vitam,
Qui violat facteis communia fdera pacis.
Etsi fallit enim divom genus humanumque,
Perpetuo tamen id fore clam diffidere debet.”
“Hence fear of vengeance life’s best prizes mars;
For violence and wrong take him who works them,
As in a net, and to their source return.
Nor is it easy found for him who breaks
By deeds the common covenants of peace
To lead a placid and a peaceful life.
For grant he cheat the gods and all mankind,
He cannot hope the evil done will be
For ever secret.”
Lucr. De Rer. Nat. v. 1151.
Did the judgment of which the thinker speaks go beyond this? That question also has been variously answered. The Debater, it is obvious, does not draw the pictures of the Tartarus and Elysian Fields of the Greek, or of the Gehenna and the Paradise of which his countrymen were learning to speak, it may be, all too lightly. He will not map out a country he has not seen. But the facts on which he dwells, the life of ignoble pleasure, or tyranny, or fraud carried on successfully to the last, the unequal distribution of the pleasures and the pains of life, the obvious retort on the part of the evil-doer that if this life were all, men could take their fill of pleasure and evade the judgment of man, or the misery of self-made reproach and failure, by suicide, all this leads to the conclusion that the “judgment” which the young man is to remember is “exceeding broad,” stretching far into the unseen future of the eternal years. Faith at last comes in where Reason fails, and the man is bidden to remember, in all the flush of life and joy, that “judgment” comes at last, if not in man’s present stage of being, yet in the great hereafter.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ecc 11:9-10
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.
Joy and judgment
Our translators have slipped in a but where there ought to be an and, and have thus made the Preacher set the joy of youth and the judgment of God over against each other: whereas, in fact, the judgment is put as part of the rejoicing: Rejoice in thy youth; and know that, respecting all these, God will bring thee into judgment. Let us look at the two parts of the text separately–joy and judgment; and then we shall see how they fit into each other, and are parts of one great truth. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in thy youthful days, and pursue the ways of thine heart, and the things which are seen by the eyes. We are not listening to a Christian moralist: nevertheless, the sentiment is Christian. Childhood and youth, or youth and manhood, are fleeting; therefore, Banish sorrow from thy mind, and put away sadness from thy body. He evidently does not think that the brevity and transitoriness of a thing is a reason for despising it. Neither do you and I, when we deal with ordinary matters. The rose which you pluck in the morning withers before the next morning, but you delight yourself with its colour and perfume none the less while it lasts. Youth and fresh manhood are things only of a few years; but their brevity is, to the Preacher, the reason why they should be enjoyed. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Youth is pointed back to his creation. What stamp did the Creator set upon it? What provision did He make for youth? What did He mean youth to be? Obedient, reverent, pure, diligent–all that certainly; yet as certainly fresh, joyous, vigorous. A joyless youth is as unnatural as ice in August: Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth. It may be said, At any rate, this aspect of the truth does not need pressing in our day, and it were better to warn youth against the coming judgment. And it seems to be assumed, moreover, that there is an antagonism between these two ideas of joy and judgment; that the thought of judgment is enough of itself to quench all rejoicing in youth. But the peculiarity of our text is, that it rejects this antagonism, and makes this coming judgment a cause of rejoicing–a stimulant of the joy of youth as well as a warning: Rejoice, and know that God will bring thee into judgment. Banish, therefore, sorrow from thy mind, and put away sadness from thy body. Whenever this book may have been written, we find in it numerous allusions to a state of society which give these words about a future judgment a peculiar meaning and force; for the book depicts a society under a capricious despotism, with all its corruptions and miseries. And as the book reveals this fearful social condition, so, likewise, it gives expression to the temper which grows up in mens minds after a long course of such oppressions–a kind of fatalism and hopelessness which tempts one to yield passively to the current of affairs; to believe that God has ceased to rule, and that order and right have vanished from the world; to snatch at every pleasure; to drown care in sensuality rather than try to maintain an integrity which is sure to be rewarded with personal and social ruin. That kind of temper, if it once gained headway, would affect all classes and ages. In the nobler and better-seasoned characters it would become a proud despair; in vulgar minds a bestial greed, and an untram-melled selilshness; in youth a prompter to unbounded sensuality. You can see, therefore, what a powerful antidote to this temper would be furnished by the truth of a future judgment. One can afford to be cheerful, oven amid oppressions and troubles like these, if the time is short, and a day coming in which wrong shall be righted, and worth acknowledged and fidelity rewarded. The judgment is a fact which confronts us as Christians–a fact emphasized by the words of Christ and of the apostles, and still further emphasized by the relation in which Christ puts Himself to it as the Judge of all men. And the attitude of even our Christian thought towards it is largely that of terror and apprehension. The element of solemnity must, in any case, dominate our thought of the last day. It cannot be other than a serious matter to appear before our Creator, and to give an account of the deeds done in the body. And assuredly it will be a day of wrath to rebels against God and to rejecters of Christ. But, withal, the truth has another side. It is not mere fancy which sees in the Judgment Day a day of consolation as well as of wrath. The Mediator is the Judge, and the blood of sprinkling has taken the terror out of judgment. Why, then, should a man, young or old, have the work or the pleasure peculiar to his age and circumstances clouded by the anticipation of judgment? Why may not the young man lawfully rejoice in his youth, provided he remembers his Creator? The mistake is in divorcing the Creator and Judge from the joy of life; whereas, God is the true joy of life. Whence come the pure pleasures of youth–its hopefulness, its energy, its mirth, its sense of beauty? Do they not come from God? Is He not the Creator of these as well as oil bone and muscle? And if these gifts are recognized as Gods, are they not at once sweetened, and guarded against abuse by that very fact? Christ tells us that one office of the Holy Spirit is to convince of judgment: that is, to show men clearly that all sin deserves and will receive the judgment of God. Is it not, then, a cause of rejoicing that God guards our pleasures against abuse, that He teaches us what true pleasure is, that He sets up a sign marked judgment at the border-line of excess? Is it not a real cause of rejoicing that God restrains us from incurring the judgment of sin? Can that be real pleasure which ends in rebuke and punishment? And, therefore, when we recognize our legitimate pleasures as Gods gift, our joy in them is heightened. We may enjoy without fear. God will not condemn what Himself has ordained and created; and when we look forward to the great judgment, the eternal life beyond, these very pleasures take on a prophetic character. They are foretastes, earnests of something better beyond. The pleasure at His right hand here promises fulness of joy at His right hand for evermore. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
Advice to youth
It is in this healthy, bracing tone, it is in these words of manly wisdom, that the Preacher brings to a close the volume of his confessions. His tone has not always been thus bright and hopeful. It has sometimes been melancholy, cynical, sceptical, all but despairing. Bitterness, disappointment, vanity, these had been the burden of his book. But he has learnt by Gods discipline the true wisdom, and he gives you the benefit of his experience. The book is that most touching of all autobiographies, the autobiography of a heart. The Preacher is a layman and an accomplished man of the world. This is no sour moralist of the schools, who condemns the vices go which he has felt no temptation, or who looks askance with an eye of something like half regret at the pleasures on which he frowns or the follies at which he sneers. Nor is he the stern ascetic who can make no allowance for human frailty and bids you crush with hand of iron the uprisings of human passion. Nor, again, is he, on the other hand, merely the sated voluptuary, who has drained the cup of pleasure to the dregs, and who, tired and disgusted with his own excesses, now with enfeebled frame and jaded appetite pronounces the mournful condemnation of his former self. He is the calm, prudent, philosophical man of the world. Such is the man. What is his teaching? What does this wise man, this man of knowledge and experience say, as, looking back at the end of the years, he sees others setting out on the voyage of life? How does he address the young? Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth. This is not, as some would persuade us, the language of cynical scorn. The Preacher does not hold up to you the empty shrivelled mask of the world that he may mock your joy. He does not take off the kingly crown and the robe of pride and show you the grinning deaths head and the ghastly skeleton beneath, and bid you rejoice if you can. He means what He says. There is the full sympathy with youth. He would not teach you else. This is the secret of all true teaching. You can never win others if you are not in sympathy with them. Your words may be wise and weighty; but they will not influence men unless you can make them feel that you and they have something in common. And above all this is true with the young. How often the austere voice of age chills and repels the youthful heart. It has bright visions, golden dreams, a future which seems boundless. It has no patience with your stern maxims and your cold preaching about duty. But go to it as the Preacher goes in this book, go to it with the frank sympathy and the affectionate voice which says, Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth. Be happy in youth, for not to be happy now would be to despise one of Gods best gifts of love. But will you go with him a step further? How would he ensure you this blessed gift of gladness and innocent mirth? How would he keep your heart fresh through all the coming years? By casting over it the shadow of judgment and the fear of God. Walk in the way of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh, for (without God) childhood and youth are vanity. Know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. He wants to see you happy. He wants you to put away sorrow from your heart and evil from your flesh. He wants you to spare yourself the misery of a wasted life, of an accusing conscience, of bitter, abiding remorse. That is why he says to you, Know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. That is why he bids you remember your Creator. It is not to deny you one innocent pleasure, it is not to make you gloomy, misanthropic, unsociable. It is to lead you to carry everywhere with you the thought of a love which shall be as music in your hearts, whatever labour may be given you and whatever sorrows may darken your path. This is a very simple elementary truth. But is it not a truth that is too much forgotten? Do we not need to make this the fundamental article of the religious teaching of the young? Ought we not to endeavour to stamp upon their hearts that old name of God, Thou God seest me? It is the appeal to the conscience before the conscience has been seared. Will you still say, I am young, let me enjoy myself, there is time enough to think about religion by and by? I know this is a common delusion. I know it is a delusion which is sometimes fostered by pernicious teaching. I do not limit the grace of God. He can change the heart of a sinner as He changed that of Saul of Tarsus, or of the robber on the cross. But such changes are the exception. And they at least had not known the truth and wilfully turned their backs upon the truth. And even if He should give you repentance, how bitter will it be. Think of the evil habits to be overcome. Think by how sharp and painful a process all those thick layers of evil which have gathered upon you must be cut away. How hard it is to begin late in life a habit of prayer, a habit of reading the Scriptures, a habit of self-examination, a habit of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Ii we would have a pure conscience and a strong faith and a clear hope, if we would save ourselves from bitter, bitter tears and a remorse which is agony, we must remember our Creator in the days of our youth. But once more the Preacher enforces his counsel, not only by the thought of judgment to come, but by the melancholy picture of an old age which can find no pleasure in earthly things and has no God to turn to. The Preacher does not threaten you with a short term of years, he does not dwell on the uncertainty of life. He knew well how easy it is to put away such a thought, how ready we all are to admit the possibility in every case but our own. He grants you the fourscore years you expect to reach. And he puts before you the picture of your then self. With that palsied frame, with those decaying faculties, with that impaired vigour, will you serve God better? Or when your whole life has been one long forgetfulness of Him, will you find it pleasant to remember Him? can you change all at once the current of your thoughts and your affections? Remember! How that word checks the heedlessness and thoughtlessness of youth. Remember! And to you that word comes with a sweeter and more solemn sound. You are invited to remember not One only whose power fashioned you, but One whose love redeemed you. (Bp. Perowne.)
A warning to youth
Youths have often been compared to trees in their bloom; but, like beautiful and promising blossoms, they often disappoint the hopes they inspire. It depends upon the principles they imbibe, and the courses they pursue, whether they shall or shall not be blessings to their parents, to their friends, and to their fellow-creatures.
I. The true import of the address to youth in the text.
1. Some suppose that Solomon means to express his approbation of young people in pursuing the innocent recreations and amusements of life. They consider him as representing religion as not only free from austerity and gloominess, but as productive of the purest happiness in the present as well as in the future state. And he often does paint virtue and piety in this amiable and beautiful form (Pro 3:17; Ecc 8:15; Ecc 9:7).
2. This does not appear to be Solomons meaning in the text. He is speaking to a careless, secure, unsanctified youth, who has no fear of God before his eyes. It is therefore beyond a doubt that he means to speak ironically, and to convey an idea directly contrary to what his words literally express. But new those who are in the morning of life may be ready to ask, Why should the wise man give us, in particular, such a solemn warning to live and act under a realizing view of the great and last day? Did he not know that such a view of future and eternal realities would disturb our peace and destroy all our pleasing hopes and prospects? Why did he not make this address to the aged, who have gone through the busy scenes of life, and are just ready to appear before the supreme tribunal of their final Judge?
II. To convince you who are ready to think and speak in this manner, of the propriety of the wise mans address, and of the importance of your living in a constant preparation for your final account, I will suggest the following things to your most serious consideration.
1. Please to reflect upon your hearts, which you have carried about with you, and which you have found to be extremely corrupt and sinful. Can you conceive of any safety in trusting in such hearts, which you have found have so often betrayed, deceived, and well-nigh ruined you? Can you set any bounds to your progress in sinning? Is there any evil or danger to which you are not exposed? Is there not, then, a great propriety in the wise mans addressing you in particular; and in warning you not to walk in the ways of your hearts, which are the ways to certain and endless ruin?
2. Consider that the world in which you live, and through which you have to pass to your long home, is every way calculated to corrupt and destroy you.
(1) The things of the world are full of poison, and perfectly suited to increase and draw forth the native corruption of your hearts.
(2) Worldly employments, as well as worldly objects, are of a dangerous and ensnaring nature to your hearts.
(3) Besides, you are in no less danger from the men of the world than from its business and objects.
(4) Farthermore, the god of the world unites with the men of the world, and all its scenes and objects, to lead you in the broad road to ruin. Do you not need the admonition in the text; and all other friendly admonitions of danger? Can any thought be more proper to lie continually on your minds than your constant exposedness to live and die impenitent?
3. Bear it in your minds that you are now in a state of trial, and forming your characters for eternity.
4. Remember that God not only may, but must, call you to an account for all your conduct in this state of trial.
5. Consider whether your hearts can endure, or your hands be strong, in the day that God shall deal with you.
Improvement:
1. If there be a propriety in the solemn address to youth in the text, then it is very absurd for any to think that young people in particular may be excused for neglecting preparation for their future and eternal state.
2. If there be a propriety in the solemn address to youth in the text, then there is something very beautiful and amiable in becoming religious early in life. Piety adorns all persons who possees it; but it shines with peculiar lustre in youth, because it more clearly appears to be the effect of a change of heart than of a change of circumstances.
3. If there be a propriety in the pathetic address to the youth in the text, then there is a peculiar propriety in young persons remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy.
4. If it be proper to give young people such solemn warnings and admonitions as Solomon does in the text, then it must be extremely improper to provide for them and allow them in vain and sinful amusements. If one of these things is right, then the other is wrong.
5. It appears in the view of this subject that the death of young people is a very solemn and interesting event to the living, whether they leave the world prepared or unprepared. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Youthful pleasures
I. Their authorization. Rejoice, O young man. God desires the happiness of youth, and has made abundant provision for it. Cheerful youth-hood is the condition of a healthy and vigorous manhood.
II. Their moderation. Know thou. Adam in his innocence had a limiting law. God gives vast scope for human action and enjoyment; but not unbounded.
1. He will judge you at the bar of your own experience. The young man who gives full play to his passions, yields himself up to intemperance and self-indulgence, will, by an immutable law, be made to endure, as years roll on, the penalties of his immoderation. God has brought him to judgment.
2. He will judge you at the bar of your own conscience. (Homilist.)
Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.—
Remembrance in youth of judgment to come
I. The true interpretation of the text.
1. It has been viewed by some as grave advice: as though its purport were: youth is the time for gaiety within the bound of moderation; a certain decorum attends every age; there is a becoming grace and spirit in the gaiety of youth; let it be indulged only in consistency with the remembrance of God and judgment.
2. But to this interpretation it is objected by others that the terms used are too broad to allow of this passage being applied in such a serious meaning. The language in the former part of the sentence is merely ironical.
II. Enforce and illustrate this solemn warning. The heart of youth, if it goes in its own way, must go in a way full of moral disorder. Even if disgrace before men is escaped, there will be infinity of evil before God: neglect of God, of prayer, of self-examination, of Scripture. So much ingratitude and apostasy is there in neglect of God that a day of judgment is appointed for its punishment, With respect to this judgment, remember–
1. Its extent. All these things are involved in it.
2. The character of the Judge.
3. The severity of this judgment.
4. This judgment will be final and ultimate.
5. Its certainty, God will bring thee into judgment.
Heaven and earth may pass away, and shall; but not a word of God can fail. As sure as death is appointed unto all, is judgment also. (R. Hall, M. A.)
The judgment to come
I. The judgment to come is certain, and cannot be avoided. The very heathens had some notices of it; and the consciences of mankind in general forespeak it (Psa 73:1-28.). And the scriptures of truth clearly and fully confirm the certainty of the future judgment.
II. The judgment to come is a just, strict, and impartial judgment.
III. The consequences of that judgment are most important and eternal. They are either life, or death; unutterable joy and blessedness, and that not for a year, an age, or but a few ages, but for ever and ever.
IV. This awful judgment will quickly come. You may put the evil day far from your thoughts, or look upon it as at a vast distance; but it wilt quickly overtake you, and may come upon you before you are aware. There will then be an eternal entire end of all your sinful pleasing vanities; but not an end, happy would it be for you if there were, of your bitter remembrances of them; of your stinging reflections upon them, and of your overwhelming sufferings for them; these will stick close by you, and abide for ever with you. (J. Guyse, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth] Youth is devoid of cares; and, consequently, of many perplexities and distresses. Were it not so, we should have no old men; nay, perhaps not one even of middle age. It is in the order of a most gracious God, that the young should rejoice in their youth; but they should make such a moderate use of all their enjoyments, that they may not be confounded in the day of judgment. But, O young man, if thou wilt follow the propensities of thy own heart, the noisy mirth of the fool, and the dissipation of the profligate – go on; take thy full swing; but take this with thee, that “for all these things, God will judge thee;” and if the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This verse is to be understood either,
1. As a serious advice to this purpose, Seeing life is short and transitory, improve it to the best advantage, take comfort in it whilst you may, only do it with moderation, and the fear of God. Or rather,
2. As an ironical concession, such as are usual both in Scripture, as 1Ki 18:27; 22:15; Eze 28:3,4; Mt 26:45, and in other authors; for this agrees much better with the context, and with the expressions here used. And so the sense is, I foresee what evil use some men will make of what I have now said. Things being thus, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die; as they also reasoned, 1Co 15:32.
O young man; he speaks to young men particularly, because they have both the greatest ability and the strongest inclinations to pursue sensual pleasures, and are most impatient either of restraint or admonition.
Let thy heart cheer thee; indulge thy frolic and jolly humour, and take thy fill of delights.
Walk in the way of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; whatsoever thine eye or heart lusteth after, deny it not to them; as this phrase is taken. Num 15:39, nor is it ever used in a good sense. Compare Job 31:7; Psa 81:12; Jer 18:12; 2Pe 2:14; 1Jo 2:16. But know thou; but in the midst of thy feastings and jollity it will become thee, if thou art a reasonable creature, to consider thy reckoning, and whether thou dost not purchase thy gold too dear.
For all these things, for all thy follies and sinful lusts, which thou slightest as tricks of youth,
God will bring thee into judgment; will force thee to appear before his judgment-seat, to give a serious account of all thy youthful and exorbitant courses, and to receive that sentence which thy own conscience will then say thou dost justly deserve. And if thou likest thy sensuality upon these terms, much good may it do thee; I do not envy thee, nor desire to partake of thy delicates.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Rejoicenot advice,but warning. So 1Ki 22:15,is irony; if thou dost rejoice (carnally, Ecc 2:2;Ecc 7:2, not moderately,as in Ec 5:18), c., then “knowthat . . . God will bring thee into judgment” (Ecc 3:17Ecc 12:14).
youth . . . youthdistinctHebrew words, adolescence or boyhood (before Ec11:10), and full-grown youth. It marks the gradualprogress in self-indulgence, to which the young especially are prone;they see the roses, but do not discover the thorns, until pierced bythem. Religion will cost self-denial, but the want of it infinitelymore (Lu 14:28).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth,…. This advice may be considered as serious; and either as relating to natural, corporeal, and temporal delight and pleasure, under due limitations; that as mirth and cheerfulness, or a free use of the creatures of God, with moderation and temperance, is allowable to all men in common, and is spoken of throughout this book as commendable, and is healthful and profitable to men; so it is particularly suitable to the youthful age, whose natural desires may be enjoyed, and their outward senses may be gratified, in a lawful way, so far as is consistent with the fear of God, and the expectation of a future judgment: or it may be considered with respect to religious and spiritual exercises; as young men should remember their Creator in the days of their youth, as it follows; so they should rejoice in God their Maker, Ps 149:2; they should rejoice not to do evil, to which human nature is inclined, especially in youth, but to do good; should rejoice, not in the ways of sin, but in the ways of wisdom; not in any outward attainment of beauty, wit, strength, or riches, but in the grace of God; not in themselves, or their boastings, but in Christ, his person, righteousness, and salvation; not in the things of time and sense, but in hope of the glory of God;
and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; here is a different word for youth than the former, which Alshech distinguishes thus; the first designs the time to the age of thirteen, and this from thence to twenty. Or, “let thine heart do thee good”, so the Septuagint. The Targum is,
“and let thine heart be good in thee.”
Symmachus renders it, “and let thine heart be in good”; the thoughts of thine heart be employed about that which is good, spiritual, heavenly, and divine; the affections of thine heart set thereon; and the will and desires of thine heart be drawn out after such things: let thine heart prompt and put thee on doing that which is good, with delight and pleasure; but, in order, to all this, the heart must be made good by the spirit and grace of God;
and walk in the ways of thy heart; being created a clean one, sprinkled, purged, and purified by the blood of Christ; in which the fear of God is put; the laws of God are written; where Christ is formed, and his word dwells richly, and he himself by faith, where the Spirit of God and his graces are: and then to walk in the ways of such a heart is to walk in the fear of God, according to his word, as Christ is an example; and to walk after the spirit, and not after the flesh. The Septuagint and Arabic versions are, “and walk in the ways of thine heart unblamable”: the Targum,
“and walk in humility in the ways of thine heart:”
which all agree with the sense given: so Alshech interprets the ways of the heart; of the ways of the good imagination of good men;
and in the sight of thine eyes; as enlightened by the Spirit of God, directing and guiding in the way in which a man should walk; looking unto Jesus, all the while he is walking or running his Christian race; and walking in him, as he has received him; pressing towards him, the mark, for the prize of the high calling. The Targum is,
“and be cautious of the sight of thine eyes, and look not upon evil.”
The Septuagint and Arabic versions insert the negative; “and not in the sight of thine eyes”. Most interpreters understand all this its an ironic concession to young men, to indulge themselves in carnal mirth, to take their swing of sinful pleasures, to do all their corrupt hearts incline them to; and to gratify their outward senses and carnal lusts to the uttermost; even the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, which young men are most addicted to: do all this, as if it was said, and see what will be the issue of it; or, do all this if you can, with this one thing bore in mind, a future judgment; like those expressions in 1Ki 22:15; and to this sense the following clause is thought most to incline: and the rather, as the above phrases are generally used in a bad sense;
but know thou, that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment; not temporal, but eternal; not in this present life, but in the world to come; the judgment that will be after death, the last and awful judgment; and which is certain, may be known; of which a man may be assured from the light of nature, and from divine revelation;
[See comments on Ec 3:17]; into which all men will be brought, even whether they will or not; and every work shall be brought into it, good or bad, open or secret, Ec 12:14. Wherefore “these things” may respect either; and the consideration of a future judgment should influence the lives of men, and engage them both to perform acts of piety and religion in youth, and throughout the whole of life, and to shun and avoid everything that is evil. Herodotus y speaks of a custom among the Egyptians, at their feasts; that, just at the close of them, one carries about in a coffin the image of a dead man, exactly like one, made of wood, the length of a cubit or two, showing it to all the guests; saying, look upon it, drink, and take pleasure, for such shalt thou be when dead.
y Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 78.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Rejoice, young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know, that for all this God will bring thee to judgment.” The parallel shows that the beth in (with aspirated) does not introduce the reason of the joy, but the time suitable for it. Instead of veyithav libbecha , “let thy heart be of good cheer,” as the expression might also be, the words are vithivecha libbecha , “make thy heart of good cheer to thee,” – so, viz., that from this centre brightness may irradiate thy countenance (Pro 15:13) and thy whole personality, vid., Psychologie, p. 249. Vehhuroth , the period of youth, is here and at Ecc 12:1 = Num 11:28, vehhurim , as the only once occurring ne’uroth , Jer 32:30, is = the elsewhere generally used ne’urim ; the form in oth is the more modern (cf. keluloth , Jer 2:2). “Ways of the heart” are thus ways into which the impulse of the heart leads, and which satisfy the heart. , at Ecc 6:9, designates the pleasure felt in the presence of the object before one; here, a sight which draws and fastens the eyes upon it. The Chethb has the plur. , which is known to the language (Dan 1:15; Son 2:14), and which would here designate the multitude of the objects which delight the eyes, which is not unsuitable; the Pih. denotes also elsewhere, frequently, e.g., Psa 131:1, walking, in an ethical sense; Hitz., Zckl., and others interpret the first as specifying the sphere, and the second as specifying the norm (“according to the sight of thine eyes”); but they both introduce that wherein he ought to act freely and joyfully: in the ways of thy heart, into which it draws thee; and in the sight of thine eyes, towards which they direct themselves with interest. The lxx B. renders, “and not after the sight of thine eyes.” This “not” ( ), which is wanting in A.C., is an interpolation, in view of the warning, Num 15:39, against following the impulse of the heart and of the eyes; the Targ. also therefore has: “be prudent with reference to the sight of thine eyes.” But this moralizing of the text is superfluous, since the call to the youthful enjoyment of life is accompanied with the nota bene: but know that God will bring thee to an account for all this; and thus it excludes sinful sensual desire. In the midst of an address, where a yet closer definition follows, is thus punctuated, Ecc 12:14; Job 14:3; Psa 143:3; here, in the conclusion of the sentence, it is . Hitzig supposes that there is denoted by it, that the sins of youth are punished by chronic disease and abandonment in old age; Knobel and others understand by the judgment, the self-punishment of sins by all manner of evil consequences, which the O.T. looks upon as divinely inflicted penalties. But in view of the facts of experience, that God’s righteous requital is in this life too frequently escaped, Ecc 8:14, the author, here and at Ecc 3:17; Ecc 12:14, postulates a final judgment, which removes the contradiction of this present time, and which must thus be in the future; he has no clear idea of the time and manner of this final judgment, but his faith in God places the certainty of it beyond all doubt. The call to rejoice is now completed by the call to avoid all that occasions inward and outward sorrow.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
2. Enjoy the days of your youth. Ecc. 11:9-10
TEXT 11:910
9
Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.
10
So, remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 11:910
401.
Although young men are encouraged to enjoy their childhood and young manhood, what warning should they remember (verse nine)?
402.
Should youth follow all the impulses and desires of their heart? Discuss.
403.
Why should young people withdraw from vexation and evil (pain)?
PARAPHRASE 11:910
Make the most, young man, of your youth as well as your more mature young manhood. Rejoice and be happy in both of them! Follow the delight of your eyes and the way the desire of your heart leads you. Explore the many facets of life utilizing all the vigor of your youth. However, keep ever before your eyes the fact that God will call you to account. Remove care and evil from your mind and bodythese things will prove to rob you of your joy. Youth is fleeting and the vigor experienced in your manhood is soon lost.
COMMENT 11:910
Ecc. 11:9 Note the Preachers admonition is directed to young men. The youth have the pathway of life before them. Their hopes, dreams and ambitions will be shaped by attitudes formed while still young. Parker remarks: Coheleth thus does not fear to enforce religious considerations upon the young mind. How noble a spectacle is a young life of joy consecrated to the service of truth, eager in upholding the claims of all pureness and wisdom! There is no nobler sight in all the earth than consecrated youth, sanctified enthusiasm, exuberant joy, used as a stimulus in sacred service.[22][22] Joseph Parker. The Peoples Bible, XIV (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, n.d.), p. 114.
There is a unit relationship that exists in the admonitions in Ecc. 11:9-10 and Ecc. 12:1. The unity of the section is somewhat minimized by the chapter break. However, Leupold[23] wisely points out that in verse nine, youth are to rejoice in all good things that give the heart true cheer; in verse ten he is told to put aside all that might interfere with such legitimate joy; and in chapter twelve verse one, provision is made for the youth to see that his roots are to run deep in remembering God which alone assures joy.
[23] Leupold. op. cit., pp. 268269.
Solomon is encouraging the pursuit of pleasure tempered with the awareness that God will bring all activities into judgment. Some view the pleasures as sinful and thus the verse is taken as a prohibition or warning. The argument states that Solomon is using stern irony with a charge that one is free to enjoy all the sinful pleasures that youth finds exciting, but one must not forget that God will inevitably bring all deeds to judgment. Such an interpretation, however, is totally foreign to the spirit of the passage. What is evident is the fact that in the prime of life all that is wholesome activity, and thus approved of God, should be pursued.
Follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Job speaks of the heart following after the eyes (Job. 31:7). This type of wholesome pleasure has previously been approved. (Cf. Ecc. 2:10; Ecc. 2:24; Ecc. 3:12-13; Ecc. 3:22; Ecc. 5:18; Ecc. 8:15) Much of what the Preacher identifies as both wise and foolish, he has observed with his eyes. The eyes stimulate impulses and desires. The caution expressed here is toward the innocent use of sight and that which is pleasing to God. The caution comes in the stern form of a reminder that God will bring you into judgment. One does not know many of the activities of God (verses five-six), but what he must know is that God will one day judge him. What is the nature of this judgment? Various views are offered: (1) The judgment is the pain and debility that comes to one in old age, but is increased because of the sowing of wild oats in ones youth. The more one corrupts his youth, the more he suffers in old age. (2) the calamities that befall one are the direct result of sins and should be interpreted as an outpouring of Gods wrath. This kind of temporal judgment is in harmony with the principle of retribution previously discussed. (3) The interpretation which appears the most defensible in the light of Ecc. 3:17; Ecc. 12:1; Ecc. 12:7; Ecc. 12:14 is that there will be a final time of judgment. The Preachers view of the final judgment is not clear or detailed, but he appeals to proper behavior on the premise that such a judgment is coming. Existence beyond the grave was hinted at in Ecc. 9:5-6; Ecc. 9:10 and confirmed in Ecc. 12:7.
Ecc. 11:10 Solomon now urges the removal of vexation and pain. The final argument offered which should motivate this action is that the years of youth are temporary. One should avoid that which injures the inner and the outer manthe spiritual and the physical. That which robs youth of good times, pleasant days, desires of the eyes, and general happiness are to be shunned. The emphasis through this section is on a positive note. Young people are exhorted to find genuine joy in their youth. Sin brings decay and sickness (1Co. 6:18). For the person today who wishes to capture the same spirit of this passage, the words of Paul should be followed: Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2Co. 7:1).
FACT QUESTIONS 11:910
540.
What shapes the dreams of young men?
541.
Explain the unity that exists in the three verses found in Ecc. 11:9-10 and Ecc. 12:1.
542.
Why should the pleasures discussed in verses nine and ten be considered as wholesome and not evil?
543.
What influence do the eyes have on the heart?
544.
Identify the three possible types of judgment that lie before youth.
545.
What is the final argument offered in verse ten?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) The beginning of the last chapter would more conveniently have been placed here than where the division is actually made. It is hard to interpret the judgment spoken of in this verse of anything but future judgment, when we bear in mind how much of the book is taken up with the complaint that retribution does not take place in this life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Know thou, etc. The writer now, like a mariner, discerns a final guiding star. Having looked at human life from various points, and reasoned his way through many theories and suggestions, he sees that, crowning every consideration, however copious, of earthly good, the true restraint and hope and consolation of the soul, at every turn of its fortune, is in the future judgment of God. Lifting his eye above the sad uniformity of sorrow and death, he discerns the great event of the hereafter, and is comforted.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove causes of sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh. For youth and the prime of life are vanity. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near when you will say I have no pleasure in them.’
The young men are told to enjoy the fact that they are young, and their lives while they are yet young, and make the most of their youth, doing the things that they desire, but to remember that for how they behave they will be brought into judgment. Thus they must remove from their lives anything that will cause distress and sorrow to others, and not give way to the evils of the flesh.
But they must remember that youth and the prime of life are soon over (they are ‘vanity’). Or that they are futile and vain. Thus they must consider their ways and not over-exalt themselves.
‘Prime of life.’ Alternately the word possibly means ‘black hair’, and thus the period before they become grey-headed.
Consequently they must in their youth remember their Creator (compare Psa 100:3; Isa 43:15), for it is He Who will call them to account. The thought is that they are to give Him due regard, something that will involve being faithful to Him with regard to the covenant (Deu 8:18; Deu 15:15; Psa 78:35; Psa 119:55; Num 15:40; Jdg 8:34 ; 1Ch 16:12; Isa 46:9; compare the use in Exo 20:8; Exo 32:13; Lev 26:42; Lev 26:45). Each will have to answer for what he is and does.
They are reminded that they will one day grow old, and the evil days will come, the days of weakness and failing faculties, the days when life becomes more of a burden than a pleasure. Thus they must enjoy youth while they may, and make the most of the oportunities that it offers, always; however, remembering that God will be their Judge..
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Perseverance: Warning to the Youth to Fear God – In Ecc 11:9 thru Ecc 12:7 the Preacher tells young people to enjoy their days of youthfulness, but to balance their lives by remembering the coming Day of Judgment. The Preacher began his sermon in Ecc 1:1-2 by asking the rhetorical question, “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” Throughout this book he explains this statement by answering his own opening question. Remember that the book of Ecclesiastes tells us the vanity of our physical labors and of our earthly possessions. It is structured in a way that teaches us how to take our physical journey through this life, from youth to old age. A young person tends to find life adventurous and exciting. He spends much effort in exploring and achieving new feats. But the Preacher knows how vain these youthful adventures can be because he has pursued them all. Since he was once a youth, he knows how much more difficult a youth has in seeing the vanities of life. It is only with wisdom and age that anyone can see the vanities of man’s pursuits. This focus upon youth and old age reflects the theme of Ecclesiastes, which is to serve the Lord with all of our strength. The Preacher could have addresses a number of people in society, but he spoke directly to the youth because once they miss this truth in their early years, their life is too far spent to correct this grave error. If they miss their destiny when they are young, it is much harder to put their lives together when they are old and be used by God to fulfill their destinies.
Ecc 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Ecc 11:9
Also embedded within this verse is the message that God has placed within every person certain interests and desires. We are all uniquely made with different interests. These have been planted within us as a seed towards our divine destiny. We are to follow our heart and walk by what we see, because this is how we stay on the path of our destiny. However, we must remember that God will bring us into judgment for having missed our destiny for what we were created for.
Ecc 11:10 Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
Ecc 12:1 Ecc 12:1
Statistics reveal that people are less prone to give their lives to Jesus the older they get. The best time to give one’s life to Jesus is while we are young and easily obedient to the ways of God. An older person becomes set in his ways and more stubborn to change.
Ecc 12:1 “while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” Comments – One characteristic of youth is their zeal to find some enjoyable activity each day. As a parent, I look forward to spending the day at home resting, but our children are trying to get us to take them out somewhere so that they can do something fun. Many old people lose the desire to live. They say that they want to die.
Ecc 12:2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
Ecc 12:2
Ecc 12:2 “nor the clouds return after the rain” – Comments – This is figurative of depression or sadness. A long life can give a person many opportunities to remember the past and become depressed.
Ecc 12:3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
Ecc 12:3
Ecc 12:3 “and the strong men shall bow themselves” – Comments – Old age tends to cause one to bend or stoop. The “strong men” may refer to the two legs, or to the back.
Ecc 12:3 “and the grinders cease because they are few” Comments – This is a reference to the loss of teeth.
Ecc 12:3 “and those that look out of the windows be darkened” Comments – This is a reference to the two eyes.
Ecc 12:4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
Ecc 12:4
Ecc 12:4 “when the sound of the grinding is low” – Comments – This refers to slow or poor eating habits, and, because of tooth loss, they tend to eat soft foods. They eat less often because it is no longer a pleasure to them. This may refer to the loss of hearing.
Ecc 12:4 “and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird” – Comments – Elderly people tend to get up early, sleep less, and are easily awakened.
Ecc 12:4 “and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low” – Comments – This is a reference to the loss of hearing.
Ecc 12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Ecc 12:5
Ecc 12:5 “and the almond tree shall flourish” – Comments – The almond tree shall blossom. The almond blossom is white. This refers to white hair.
Ecc 12:5 “and the grasshopper shall be a burden” – Comments – The little things in life are difficult to perform, and lifting is also a burden.
Ecc 12:5 “and desire shall fail” – Comments – Elderly people lack a desire for an active life, for sex, for doing things and having interests.
Ecc 12:5 “because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets” – Comments – This refers to a funeral.
Ecc 12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Ecc 12:6
[28] Billye Brim, interviewed by Gloria Copeland, Believer’s Voice of Victory (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Ecc 12:6 Comments – These are figures of speech for death. J. Vernon McGee suggests that the “silver cord” describes the spinal marrow, the “golden bowl” the basin which holds the brain, the “pitcher” the lungs, and the “wheel” the heart. [29] John Wesley says that the silver cord represents the spinal cord, which has a white color, and that the golden bowl the brain, which can have a yellowish appearance. Wesley goes on to interpret the pitcher and the wheel as the circulatory system, with the fountain figurative of the right ventricle of the heart, which is now acknowledged to be the spring of life. He says the pitcher would represent the veins, which convey the flow of blood to the body, and the cistern would be the left ventricle and the wheel the great artery. [30]
[29] J. Vernon McGee, Ecclesiastes, in Thru the Bible With J. Vernon McGee (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1998), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on Ecclesiastes 12:6.
[30] John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament: Proverbs-Malachi, in The Wesleyan Heritage Library Commentary [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: Ages Software, Inc., 2002), comments on Ecclesiastes 12:6.
Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Ecc 12:7
Gen 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Eze 37:3-5, “And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.”
Psa 104:29, “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”
Job 34:14-15, “If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.”
Ecc 12:7 “and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” Comments – Jesse Duplantis little babies around the throne of God as if they were newly created by the “breath of God.” [31] Thus, our life originated with God, and to God who gave it we will return (Ecc 3:21; Ecc 8:8, Jas 2:26).
[31] Jesse Duplantis, Heaven Close Encounters of the God Kind (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 1996), 119.
Ecc 3:21, “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”
Ecc 8:8, “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.”
Jas 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Ecc 11:9. In the days of thy youth In the days of thy wishes.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 845
YOUTH WARNED OF THE FUTURE JUDGMENT
Ecc 11:9. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment.
EARTHLY pleasure is doubtless gratifying to flesh and blood: hence it is more or less an object of desire to all: but there are two considerations which may well abate our ardour in the pursuit, namely, that its gratifications will soon come to an end; and that there is an approaching judgment, at which we must give an account of all that we have ever done in the body, and receive from Gods mouth a sentence corresponding with the tenour of our past life. In the verses preceding our text, the former consideration is urged; and we are told, that, however protracted our pleasures may be, they are but like a winters sun, which will soon set in darkness, and be followed by a long and dreary night. Such a night is not far off, even from those who are in the very morning of life. It may be hastened prematurely, as it were, by sickness, and care, and unavoidable misfortunes; and it must come at last through the infirmities of age, which, if our life be prolonged, will make it but labour and sorrow. The latter consideration is suggested in the text, which contains two things:
I.
A keen remonstrance.
The address here made to youth, though it appears like a concession, is not really so
[It has been thought by some to be a concession, recommending youth to enjoy themselves in the world; only to do it in such a way as not to endanger their happiness in a future life. And it is certain that there are in this book many concessions to that effect [Note: Ecc 2:24; Ecc 3:12-13; Ecc 5:18-19.] Such passages as these may indeed be easily pressed too far: but, on the other hand, they are not in general understood by the religious world. Religious people are apt to imagine, that Christianity requires an utter abandonment of those things which the carnal mind affects; and that a pious person who possesses any considerable measure of earthly comforts, is necessarily inconsistent in his conduct. But this is a mistake, and a mistake which greatly needs to be rectified; because it occasions many unjust censures, and uncharitable reflections. God has given us all things richly to enjoy [Note: 1Ti 6:17.]: and, provided we do not spend an undue portion of our substance on earthly indulgences, or set our affections upon them, there is nothing in Christianity which prohibits a reasonable use, and a temperate enjoyment of them. If only we sit loose to them in our hearts, and enjoy God in them, they are perfectly lawful; yea, they are sanctified to us by the word of God and prayer [Note: 1Ti 4:4-5.].
But it is not in this sense that the address before us is to be understood:]
It is, on the contrary, a just and severe remonstrance
[The terms here used are such as cannot well be taken in a good sense. To walk in the ways of our own heart, and in the sight of our own eyes, is equivalent to walking in the ways of criminal self-indulgence. This is the import of these expressions in other passages of Scripture [Note: Num 15:39. Deu 29:19.] and so they must be taken here; as is evident from the awful judgments with which such indulgences are menaced in out text. The text is, in fact, an ironical remonstrance, similar to that which Elijah uttered, when he condemned the worshippers of Baal; Cry aloud; for he is a God [Note: 1Ki 18:27.]: and that by which Micaiah reproved the impolicy of Ahab; Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper [Note: 1Ki 22:15.]. By this kind of irony Solomon intended to convey an idea, that young men are bent on such indulgences; that they promise themselves security in the midst of them; and that they will not be prevailed on by more temperate re-proof: and, in this view, his words may be thus paraphrased: You will, notwithstanding all that I can say to dissuade you from it, go on in the ways of sin, persuading yourselves that nothing but happiness awaits you: and therefore go on; and follow the bent of your own inclinations: but know, that in the end you will find yourselves grievously disappointed. Severe as such a remonstrance is, it is perfectly just: for, who that considers what the great end of our being is, can doubt the wickedness of living to the world and to the flesh? or who that sees how contrary such conduct is to that of Christ and his apostles, can doubt what the issue of such a life shall be? Verily, if we mind earthly things, we are enemies to the cross of Christ, and our end will be destruction [Note: Php 3:18-19.]; for, whatever may be said or thought to the contrary, to be carnally-minded is death [Note: Rom 8:6.].]
To this is annexed,
II.
A solemn warning
There is a day of judgment fast approaching
[God will most assuredly judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, even by his Son, Jesus Christ. Before his tribunal we must all appear: the young, as well as the old, shall then give up their account to him; and the things which we did in the earlier part of life shall be brought forth for judgment, as well as those which were done at a more advanced age. The book of Gods remembrance shall be opened; and every thing that was recorded in it, from the first moment of our existence to the latest breath we drew, shall be adduced as illustrative of our true character, and as the ground of Gods final sentence.]
Then shall the things which are now done receive their proper reward
[The judgment of God will not then be regulated by our views, but by his own unerring wisdom. We may palliate a life of vanity and worldliness now; but he will view it as indeed it is, as a life of rebellion against him. It argues a total alienation of heart from him: it shews that we lived to please ourselves rather than him, and that we were in reality a god unto ourselves. He had told us plainly, If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but we would not believe it. He had told us, that the broad road, in which the many are walking, leadeth to destruction; and that the narrow way alone leadeth unto life: but we would not be persuaded that such an awful declaration should ever be verified. Nevertheless so it will be found in the last day: and of this we may be perfectly assured: for it stands on the word of God, which is as immutable as God himself: Know thou, that for all these things God will call thee into judgment.]
Address
1.
Those who seek their happiness in earthly things
[Say not, You commit no gross sin, and therefore have no cause to fear. The question simply is, Do you walk after the way of your own heart? If you do, it matters little what path you choose, whether it be that of open, or secret sin: you are equally living without God in the world, and are equally obnoxious to his heavy displeasure. I mean not by this to say, that all sins are alike, or that gross immoralities will not augment your guilt and condemnation in the last day. But this is an undoubted truth, that he only who gives up himself to God in this world, can ever dwell with him in the world to come: for if we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption: and it is only from sowing to the Spirit, that we can hope to reap life everlasting. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we would persuade you, whilst yet we may avert from you the impending storm: we would persuade thee in particular, O young man, that thou mayest not any longer deceive thy soul, and dream of happiness in another world, when thou art only treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.]
2.
Those who are seeking happiness in the ways of God
[Say whether thou hast not found more solid joy in the ways of God, than ever thou foundest in the vanities of the world? Say whether thou hast not found it better to mortify thy members upon earth, than to indulge them; and to live to God, rather than to live unto thyself? The joy thou now hast is legitimate: it is such as prophets and apostles had before thee; and such as God has freely conceded to thee, to the utmost extent of all thy wishes: Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Indeed thy present joys are the gift of God to thy soul. Go on then rejoicing in the Lord always: yea, rejoice, if so it may be, with a joy that is unspeakable and glorified. These joys will never make the future judgment formidable; on the contrary, they will help to prepare thee for it, inasmuch as they are themselves an earnest of thine everlasting inheritance.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. (10) Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
Some have thought that the Preacher, in these verses, is adopting an ironical language to the younger part of his audience, by way of deterring them from evil; as if he had said, Pursue the ways of thine own heart, and the desire of thine eyes, and then mark the consequence. And they that adopt this opinion of Solomon’s irony, suppose that it is similar to the case of Elijah, mocking the priests of Baal. 1Ki 18:27 , or Micaiah Ahab, 1Ki 22:15 , or the Prophet Isa 50:11 . But I confess that the scripture doth not strike me in this point of view. Solomon’s address all along is too serious to admit any trifling. And it should be observed, that in all the pages, where mockery is used by the servants of the Lord, it is invariably to the enemies of God, and not to the church. This book of Ecclesiastes is one continued sermon to the church. Solomon is now closing up his discourse on the subject of all things out of Christ being vanity. In addressing the young man, therefore, on the subject, he admonisheth him to dedicate the first strength of his youth, and the prime of his days to the Lord; that in the after stages of life, he may find cause of joy in that Lord, whom he had loved in his strength. Solomon had before declared; that there could be no real joy in any creature-comfort, and therefore he advised the young man to put away evil from him. And, if we accept the words of Solomon in this gracious point of view, the whole passage is beautiful and corresponding to the general tenor of the gospel. How lovely on this account is Timothy’s example, who from a child had known the Holy Scriptures, and whose faith the Apostle so delightfully commends. 2Ti 3:15 . and 1 Chap. 5.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment.
Ver. 9. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, ] i.e., Do if thou darest; like as God said to Balaam, “Rise up and go to Balak” Num 22:20 – that is, go if thou thinkest it good; go since thou wilt need to go; but thou goest upon thy death. Let no man imagine that it ever came into the Preacher’s heart here, oleum camino addere, to add fuel to the fire of youthful lusts, to excite young people, unruly enough of themselves, to take their full swing in sinful pleasures. Thus to do might better befit a Protagoras, of whom Plato a reports, that he many times boasted, that whereas he had lived sixty years, forty of those sixty he had spent in corrupting those young men that had been his pupils; or that old dotterel in Terence, that said, Non est mihi, crede, flagitium adolescentem helluari, potare, scortari, fores effringere: I hold it no fault for young men to swagger, drink, drab, revel, &c. Solomon in this text, either by a mimesis brings in the wild younker thus bespeaking himself, Rejoice, my soul, in thy youth, &c., and then nips him on the crown again with that stinging “but” in the end of the verse; or else, which I rather think, by an ironic concession he bids him “rejoice,” &c., yields him what he would have, by way of mockage and bitter scoff; like as Elijah jeered the Baalites, bidding them cry aloud unto their drowsy or busy god; or as Micaiah bade Ahab, by a holy scoff, go up against Ramothgilead and prosper; or as our Saviour bade his drowsy desciples, “Sleep on now, and take your rest,” Mar 14:41 viz., if you can at least, or have any mind to it, with so many bills and halberds about your ears.
And let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.
Walk in the way of thine heart.
And in the sight of thine eyes.
But know.
That for all these things.
God will bring thee to judgment.
a Plato in Meneu.
Ecclesiastes
A NEW YEARS SERMON TO THE YOUNG
Ecc 11:9 This strange, and in some places perplexing Book of Ecclesiastes, is intended to be the picture of a man fighting his way through perplexities and half-truths to a clear conviction in which he can rest. What he says in his process of coming to that conviction is not always to be taken as true. Much that is spoken in the earlier portion of the Book is spoken in order to be confuted, and its insufficiency, its exaggerations, its onesidedness, and its half-truths, to be manifest in the light of the ultimate conclusion to which he comes. Through all these perplexities he goes on ‘sounding his dim and perilous way,’ with pitfalls on this side of him and bogs on that, till he comes out at last upon the open way, with firm ground under foot and a clear sky overhead. These phrases which I have taken are the opening sentences and the final conclusion on which he rests. How then are they meant to be understood? Is that saying, ‘Rejoice, O young man! in the days of thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes,’ to be taken as a bit of fierce irony? Is this a man taking the maxims of the foolish world about him and seeming to approve of them in order that he may face round at the end with a quick turn and a cynical face and hand them back their maxims along with that which will shatter them to pieces-as if he said, ‘Oh, yes! go on, talk your fill about making the best of this world, and rejoicing and doing as you like, dancing on the edge of a precipice, and fiddling, like Nero, whilst a worse fire than that of Rome is burning’? Well, I do not think that is the meaning of it. Though there is irony to be found in the Bible, I do not think that fierce irony like that which might do for the like of Dean Swift, is the intention of the Preacher. So I take these words to be said in good faith, as a frank recognition of the fact that, after all we have been hearing about vanity and vexation of spirit, life is worth living for, and that God means young people to be glad and to make the best of the fleeting years that will never come back with the same buoyancy and elasticity all their lives long. And then I take it that the words added are not meant to destroy or neutralise the concession of the first sentence, but only to purify and ennoble a gladness which, without them, would be apt to be stained by many a corruption, and to make permanent a joy which, without them, would be sure to die down into the miserable, peevish, and feeble old age of which the grim picture follows, and to be quenched at last in death. So there are three words that I take out of this text of mine, and that I want to bring before my young friends as exhortations which it is wise to follow. These are Rejoice, Reflect, Remember. Rejoice-the fitting gladness of youth; reflect-the solemn thought that will guard the gladness from stain; remember-the religion which will make these things ever last.
First of all ‘Rejoice.’ Do as you like, for that is the English translation of the words, ‘Walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes.’ Buoyantly and cheerfully follow the inclinations and the desires which are stamped upon your nature and belong to your time of life. All young things are joyful, from the lamb in the pastures upwards, and are meant to be so. The mere bounding sense of physical strength which leads so many of you young men astray is a good thing and a blessed thing-a blessing to be thankful for and to cherish. Your smooth cheeks, so unlike those of old age, are only an emblem of the comparative freedom from care which belongs to your happy condition. Your memories are not yet like some-a book written within and without with the records of mourning and disappointment and crosses. There are in all probability long years stretching before you, instead of a narrow strip of barren sand, before you come to the great salt sea that is going to swallow you up, as is the case with some of us. Christianity looks with complacency on your gladness, and does not mean to clip the wing of one white-winged pleasure, or to breathe one glimmer of blackness on your atmosphere. You are meant to be glad, but it is gladness in a far higher sense that I want to secure for you, or rather to make you secure for yourselves. God delights in the prosperity and light-hearted buoyancy of His children, especially of His young children. Ah! but I know there are young lives over which poverty or ill-health or sorrows of one kind or another have cast a gloom as incongruous to your time of life as snow in the garden in the spring, that pinches the crocuses and weighs down young green beech-leaves, would be. And if I am speaking to any young man or young woman at this time who by reason of painful outward circumstances has had but a chilling spring and youth, I would say to them, ‘don’t lose heart’; a cloudy morning often breaks into a perfect day. It is good for a man to have to ‘bear the yoke in his youth,’ and if you miss joy, you may get grace and strength and patience, which will be a blessing to you all your days. For all that, the ordinary course of things is that the young should be glad, and that the young life should be as the rippling brook in the sunshine. I want to leave upon your minds this impression, that it is all right and all in the order of God’s providence, who means every one of you to rejoice in the days of your youth. The text says further, ‘Walk in the ways of thine heart.’ That sounds very like the unwholesome teaching, ‘Follow nature; do as you like; let passions and tastes and inclinations be your guides.’
Well, that needs to be set round with a good many guards to prevent it becoming a doctrine of devils. But for all that, I wish you to notice that that has a great and a religious side to it. You have come into possession of this mystical life of yours, a possession which requires that you must choose what kind of life you will follow. Every one has this awful prerogative of being able to walk in the way of their heart. You have to answer for the kind of way that is, and the kind of heart out of which it has come. But I want to go to more important things, and so with a clear understanding that the joy of youth is all right and legitimate, that you are intended to be glad, and to feel the physical and intellectual spring and buoyancy of early days, let us go on to the next thing. ‘Rejoice,’ says my text, and it adds, ‘Reflect.’ It is one of the blessings of your time of life, my young friends, that you do not do much of that. It is one of your happy immunities that you are not yet in the habit of looking at life as a whole, and considering actions and consequences. Keep that spontaneity as long as you can; it is a good thing to keep. But for all that, do not forget this awful thing, that it may turn to exaggeration and excess, and that it needs, like all other good things, to be guarded and rightly used. And so, ‘Rejoice,’ and ‘walk in the sight of thine eyes’; but -’know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment.’ Well, now, is that thought to come in I was going to say, like a mourning-coach driven through a wedding procession to kill the joys we have been seeming to receive from the former words? Are we taking back all that we have been giving, and giving out instead something that will make them all cower and be quiet, like the singing birds that stop their singing and hide in the leaves when they see the kite in the sky? No, there is no need for anything of the sort. ‘For all these things God will bring thee to judgment’: that is not the thought that kills, but that purifies and ennobles. Regard being had to the opinions expressed at various points in the earlier portion of this Book, we may be allowed to think of this testimony as having reference to the perpetual judgment that is going on in this world always over every man’s life. A great German thinker has it, in reference to the history of nations, that the history of the world is the judgment of the world, and although that is not true if it is a denial of a physical day of judgment, it is true in a very profound and solemn sense with regard to the daily life of every man, that whether there be a judgment-seat beyond the grave or not, and whether this Preacher knew anything about that or no, there is going on through the whole of a man’s life, and evolving itself, this solemn conviction, that we are to pass away from this present life. All our days are knit together as one whole. Yesterday is the parent of today, and today is the parent of all the tomorrows. The meaning and the deepest consequence of man’s life is that no feeling, no thought that flits across the mirror of his life and heart dies utterly, leaving nothing behind it. But rather the metaphor of the Apostle is the true one, ‘That which thou sowest, that shalt thou also reap.’ All your life a seed-time, all your life a harvest-time too, for the seed which I sow today is the seed which I have reaped from all my former sowings, and so cause and consequence go rolling on in life in extricable entanglement, issuing out in this, that whatever a man does lives on in him, and that each moment inherits the whole consequence of his former life. And now, you young men and women, you boys and girls, mind! this seed-time is the one that will be most powerful in your lives, and there is a judgment you do not need to die to meet. If you are idle at school, you will never learn Latin when you go to business. If you are frivolous in your youth, if you stain your souls and soil your lives by outward coarse sin here in Manchester in your young days, there will be a taint about you all your lives. You cannot get rid of that brave law that ‘Whatever a man sows, that, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, an hundredfold, that shall he also reap’-the same kind, but infinitely multiplied in quantity. Let me therefore name some of the ways in which your joys or pleasures, as lads, as boys and girls, as growing young men and women, will bring you to judgment. Health, that is one; position, that is two; reputation, that is three; character, that is four. Did you ever see them build one of those houses they make in some parts of the country, with concrete instead of stones? Take a spadeful of the mud, and put it into a frame on the wall. When it is dry, take away the frame and the supports, and it hardens into rock. You take your single deeds-the mud sometimes, young men!-pop them on the wall, and think no more about it. Ay, but they stop there and harden there, and lo! a character-a house for your soul to live in-health, position, memory, capacity, and all that. If you have not done certain things which you ought to have done, you will never be able to do them, and there are the materials for a judgment. That is going on every moment, and especially is it going on in the region of your pleasures. If they are unworthy, you are unworthy; if they are gross, and coarse, and low, and animal, they are dragging you down; if they are frivolous and foolish, they are making you a poor butterfly of a creature that is worth nothing and will be of no good to anybody; if they are pure, and chaste, and lofty, and virginal and white, they will make your souls good and gracious and tender with the tenderness and beauty of God.
But that is not all. I am not going to travel beyond the limits of this present life with any words of mine, but as I read this final conclusion in this Book of Ecclesiastes, I think I can perceive that the doubts and the scepticisms about a future life, and the difference between a man and a beast which are spoken of in the earlier chapters, have all been overcome, and the clear conviction of the writer is expressed in these twofold great sayings: ‘The spirit shall return unto God who gave it, and the words with which He stamps all His message upon our hearts, the final words of His book’; ‘God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing.’ And I come to you and say, ‘I suppose you believe in a state of retribution beyond?’ I suppose that most of the young folk I am speaking to now at all events believe that ‘Thou wilt come to be our judge,’ as the Te Deum has it; and that it is this same personal self of mine that is to stand there who is sitting here? God shall bring thee into judgment. Never mind what is to come of the body, the quivering, palpitating, personal centre. The very same self that I know myself to be will be carried there. Now, take that with you and lay it to heart, and let it have a bearing on your pleasure. It will kill nothing that deserves to live, it will take no real joy out of a man’s life. It will only strain out the poison that would kill you. You turn that thought upon your heart, my friends. Is it like a policeman’s bull’s-eye turned upon a lot of bad characters hiding under a railway arch in the corner there? If so, the sooner you get rid of the pleasures and inclinations that slink away when that beam of light strikes their ugly faces, the better for yourselves and for your lives. ‘Rejoice in the way of thine heart and, that thy joy may be pure, know that for all this God will bring thee into judgment.’
And now my last word, ‘Remember God,’ says my text. The former two sayings, if taken by themselves, would make a very imperfect guide to life. Self-indulgence regulated by the thought of retribution is a very low kind of life after all. There is something better in this world, and that is work; something higher, and that is duty; something nobler than self-indulgence, and that is self-sacrifice. And so no religion worthy the name contents itself by saying to a man, ‘Be good and you will be glad’; but, ‘Never mind whether you are glad; be good at any rate, and such gladness as is good for you will come to you, and you can want the rest.’ ‘Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.’ Recall God to your thoughts, and keep Him in your mind all the day long. That is wonderfully unlike your life, is it not? Remember thy Creator; shift the centre of your life. What I have been saying might be true of a man, the centre of whose life was himself, and such a man is next door to a devil, for, I suppose, the definition of devil is ‘self-engrossed still,’ and whosoever lives for himself is dead. Don’t let the earth be the centre of your system, but the sun. Do not live to yourselves, or your pleasures will all be ignoble and creeping, but live to God. ‘Remember.’ Well, then, you and I know a good deal more about God than the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes did-both about what He is and how to remember Him. I am not going to content myself by taking his point of view, but I must take a far higher and a far better one. If he had been here he would have said ‘Remember God.’ He would have said, ‘Look at God in Jesus Christ, and trust Him and love Him; go to Him as your Saviour, and take all the burden of your past sin and lay it upon His merciful shoulders, and for His dear sake look for forgiveness and cleansing; and then for His dear sake live to serve and bless Him. Never mind about yourself, and do not think much about your gladness. Follow in the footsteps of Him who has shown us that the highest joy is to give oneself utterly away. Love Jesus Christ and trust Him and serve Him, and that will make all your gladness permanent.’ There is one thing I want to teach you. Look at that description, or rather read when you go home the description which follows my text, of that wretched old man who has got no hope in God and no joy, feeble in body, going down to the grave, and dying out at last. That is what rejoicing in the days of thy youth, and walking in the ways of thine own heart, come to when you do not remember God. There is nothing more miserable on the face of this earth than an ill-conditioned old man, who is ill-conditioned because he has lost his early joys and early strength, and has got nothing to make up for them. How many of your joys, my dear young friends, will last when old age comes to you? How many of them will survive when your eye is no longer bright, and your hand no longer strong, and your foot no longer fleet? How many of them, young woman! when the light is out of your eye, and the beauty and freshness out of your face and figure, when you are no longer able for parties, when it is no longer a pastime to read novels, and when the ballroom is not exactly the place for you,-how many of your pleasures will survive? Young man! how many of yours will last when you can no longer go into dissipation, and stomach and system will no longer stand fast living, nor athletics, and the like? Oh! let me beseech thee, go to the ant and consider her ways, who in the summer layeth up for the winter; and do ye likewise in the days of your youth, store up for yourselves that which knows no change and laughs at the decay of flesh and sense. A thousand motives coincide and press on my memory if I had words and time to speak them. Let me beseech you-especially you young men and women of this congregation, of some of whom I may venture to speak as a father to his children, whom I have seen growing up, as it were, from your mothers’ arms, and the rest of you whom I do not know so well-Oh! carry away with you this beseeching entreaty of mine at the end. Love Jesus Christ and trust to Him as your Saviour; serve Him as your Captain and your King in the days of your youth. Do not offer Him the fag end of a life-the last inch of the candle that is burning down into the socket. Do it now, for the moments are flying, and you may never have Him offered to you any more. If there is any softening, any touch of conscience in your heart, yield to the impulse and do not stifle it. Take Christ for your Saviour, take Him now-’Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.’
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Ecc 11:9-10
9Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. 10So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.
Ecc 11:9 At this point in the context, Qoheleth begins to talk about the different opportunities and problems that regularly occur during the different stages of life (Ecc 11:9 to Ecc 12:7).
1. childhood
2. youth
3. young adult
4. old age
follow the impulses of your heart This advice does not refer to evil, but to the natural human instincts of young people:
1. be with friends
2. enjoy life at social events
3. desire a family and children
4. find one’s vocation
Yet know that God will bring you to judgment We are responsible for our acts (cf. Ecc 3:17; Ecc 12:1; 14; Matthew 25-26; Rom 2:16; Rom 14:10; 2Co 5:10; Gal 6:7; Revelation 20)!
Ecc 11:10
NASBvexation
NKJVsorrow
NRSVanxiety
TEVworry
NJBindignation
This term (NOUN, BDB 495, VERB, BDB 494) has several possible connotations:
1. anger of men, Ecc 7:9
2. anger of God
3. grief, Ecc 1:18; Ecc 2:23; Ecc 5:16
4. sorrow, Ecc 7:3
This verse could fit with #3 or #4. Life is hard; enjoy it when, where and while you can!
the prime of life This is possibly related to the concept, days of black hair (BDB 1007), which is the same basic root as dawn (BDB 1007). Youth, as all things, will pass away (lit. vanity, BDB 210 I, in the sense of fleeting or meaningless).
NASBfleeting
NKJV, NRSVvanity
NJBfutile
This is the term breath (BDB 210 I), used in the sense of fleeting (cf. Ecc 6:12; Ecc 7:15; Ecc 9:9; Job 7:16; Psa 39:5; Psa 39:11; Psa 62:9; Psa 78:33; Psa 144:4).
Rejoice, &c. A positive command, not irony; qualified by the solemn fact: “but know thou”, &c.
young man = a chosen youth, implying beauty and strength.
youth = childhood.
thy youth. Same word as “young man”.
judgment = the judgment.
After that the Judgment
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement.Ecc 11:9
The greater part of the Book of Ecclesiastes is of a sombre character. It records the experiences of one who sought on all sides and with passionate eagerness for that which would satisfy the higher wants of his naturethe hunger and thirst of the soulbut who sought in vain. Ordinary coarse, sensual pleasures soon lost their charm for him; for he deliberately trieda dangerous experimentto see if in self-indulgence any real satisfaction could be found. From this failure he turned to a more promising quarter. He sought in culture, the pursuit of beauty and magnificence in art, the pathway to the highest good, on the discovery of which his soul was set. He used his great wealth to procure all that could minister to a refined taste. He built palaces, planted vineyards and gardens and orchards; he filled his palaces with all that was beautiful and costly, and cultivated every pleasure that is within the reach of man. Whatsoever mine eyes desired, he says, I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on all the labour that I had laboured to do: and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. From this he turned to the joys and employments of an intellectual lifeacquired knowledge and wisdom, studied the works of nature, analyzed human character in all its phases, and applied himself to the study of all those great problems connected with the moral government of the world and the destiny of the soul of man. Here he was baffled. The discoveries he made were, he found, useless for curing any of the evils of life, and at every point he met with mysteries which he could not solve, and his sense of failure and defeat convinced him that though wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness, it does not satisfy the soul.
What, then, is the result of his inquiries, of his pain and labour in searching after the highest good? Do his speculations leave anything untouched which may reasonably be the object of our pursuit, and which may afford us the satisfaction for which he sought in vain in so many quarters? Does he decide that life is, after all, worth living, or is his conclusion that it is not? In the closing sections of his book some answer is given to these questions; something positive comes as a pleasing relief from all the negations with which he had shut up one after another of the paths by which men had sought and still seek to attain to lasting happiness. Two conclusions might have been drawn from the experience through which he had passed. Since the employments and enjoyments of life are insufficient to give satisfaction to the souls craving, why engage in them, why not turn away from them in contempt, and fix the thoughts solely on a life to come? an ascetic might ask. Since life is so transitory, pleasure so fleeting, why not seize upon every pleasure, and banish every care as far as possible? an epicurean might askLet us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die. Neither of these courses finds any favour in the mature judgment of the writer who draws his teaching from the experience of the Jewish king. Rejoice, he says, rebuking the ascetic; know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement, he adds, for the confusion of the epicurean. He speaks with the authority of one who had fully considered the problems of life, and with the solemnity of one whose earthly career was hastening to its close; and he addresses himself to the young, as more likely to profit by his experience than those over whom habits of life and thought have more power. The counsel which the Preacher has to give is bold and startling. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement.
The writer appears to have come under the influence of Greek philosophy. An accomplished scholar has been able to point out some remarkable coincidences between the sayings of Heraclitus and the sayings of Ecclesiastes. There are, moreover, passages in the book which furnish striking parallels to the Epicurean philosophy as it is interpreted by Lucretius. It is not surprising that thinkers, pondering the mysteries of the universe and the strangely complicated drama of human life, should have fallen into the same vein, should have been struck by the same problems, and have given utterance to similar thoughts respecting them. The melancholy, the questioning, the scepticism, which are found in Ecclesiastes, have been found in the Eastern mystics, and in poets so far removed from Ecclesiastes and from one another as Shakespeare and Tennyson. Thoughts like these are not the product of one age, or one country, or one philosophical school. They are the common heritage of all deeply moved hearts and minds. Still it must be admitted that the Jewish mind was not naturally reflective, it was averse from speculation, and it is at least not improbable that the thought of this Jewish preacher may have been coloured by Greek philosophy.1 [Note: J. J. S. Perowne.]
I
The Joy of Youth
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.
God does not grudge us joy. Gods own life is a life of joy. Although His life is a life of calm, unruffled joy, yet it is a life of joy none the less. It is not the calm of stagnation; it is not the calm of a life in which there is nothing to move it. It is more like the calm of that great tide of which Tennyson speaks, too full for sound and foam. It is the calm of an intense joy, so great, so unbroken, that it is always still. And God who has Himself this fulness of joy desires to see that joy shared by His creatures. That was the very reason why He made them, and He made them with that capacity for joy and that desire for joy, and He set all round about them in this wonderful world the things that might help them to be joyful.
Dante and Virgil, as they traverse the gloomy circles of the Inferno, come upon a stagnant and putrid fen, and there, buried in the black mud, they see the souls of the gloomy-sluggish, who in expiation of their sinful gloom in life, are ever forced to mutter
We were sad
In the sweet air made gladsome by the sun,
Now in this miry darkness are we sad.
To be sad in the sunshine was a crime in the great poets eyes, and the poets and prophets of Scripture were herein at one with him. For the Psalmist says, Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and Isaiah, Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; and St. Paul, Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.1 [Note: F. W. Farrar, In the Days of Thy Youth, 92.]
1. To be young is itself a privilege and a joy. The blessing of youth is joy: the blessing of mature life is work: the blessing of old age is peace. The young are all for enjoyment; the middle-aged all for achievement; the aged all for rest. It is the highest wisdom of young people to retain their youthfulness of heart and life as long as possible. It is no reproach to be young; it is one of those priceless privileges which are all the more precious because we can none of us be young for long, and we can never be young more than once. Half the miseries of youth come from the undue haste of those who wish to leave it behind themso missing the vigour of their manhood, and the peace of their old age.
Pitt, who was Prime Minister of England when twenty-four, was once taunted by an old man with his extreme youth. The atrocious crime of being a young man, he said, I shall not attempt to palliate or deny, but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience. Therefore, let all rejoice in their youth, who have their life before them; let them not rob youth of its chief charm by despising it, and hurrying out of it before their time.2 [Note: E. Griffith-Jones.]
2. A peculiar joy belongs to youth, because of the novelty and vividness of early sensations, feelings and perceptions. It is indeed one of the features of youth that we are able to find pleasure in so many things, whereas older people are able to find pleasure in fewer things. This is at once our glory, and our peril. Every sensibility and faculty of our nature is richly stored with vital force, and with the power to realize life vividly and fully. The process of growing old usually involves the gradual loss of this freshness. But there are some people who do not seem to grow old in this way; they retain to the end the faculty of realizing the freshness of life; happy are they. And we shall find that those who do retain this power longest are just those who, when they were young, were careful with their pleasures as with their health; feeding their mind on the simplicities of life; taking care not to pall their appetites with too prodigal a feast; entering into the enjoyment of pleasure with a self-contained heart; and, above all, thinking not so much of enjoyment as of something higher and better, which brought enjoyment in its train unsoughtas a gift thrown in to those worthy to receive it.
Live as long as you may, said Southey, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life, and they are by far the most pregnant in consequences. It was Robert Burns who sighed:
O man! while in thy early years,
How prodigal of time!
Mis-spending all the precious hours,
Thy glorious youthful prime!
3. Another source of joy in youth is found in its idealism. Every healthy-minded youth is an idealist. This power of the ideal runs through the whole of life. It is found in the friendships of youth, giving them a warmth and an unselfishness that we do not often see in older peopleunless in the case of friendships that date from boyhood and girlhood, which are among the richest possessions of life; for blessed are they who can boast of old friends. It is to be seen in the ambitions of youth, surrounding the objects of desire like a halo. And it is the most beautiful element in the religion of young people, that it fills them with innumerable ideals, and makes the unseen, the immaterial, and the Divine glow with a reality of beauty and a pulse of power which are at the root of almost everything worth talking of in the history of mankind. On every side human life sinks to the level of mechanism when it ceases to establish and declare the ideals by which it lives. It is not so much the embodiment of the ideal and the actual attainment of the end as it is the assertion of the ideal, the positing of the goalthe will to believe, as Professor James puts it so forcefully; it is this that constitutes the power of idealization.
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i the scale.
Isaac DIsraeli said, Almost everything great has been done by youth. The first open look of young eyes on the condition of the world is one of the principal regenerative forces of humanity. One never knows what may come of a young mans thoughts and fancies and ideals. This idealizing faculty is also one of the richest sources of joy, whether it comes to play in love, friendship, work, or religion. And it is peculiarly a youthful joy. Therefore, said the Preacher, Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.1 [Note: E. Griffith-Jones.]
4. The sage recommends the young man to rejoice in his youth, because the opportunity will soon pass away. We are not listening to a Christian moralist, nevertheless the sentiment is Christian. Childhood and youth are vanity; that is to say, they are transient, fleeting. Therefore, say a certain class of religionists, extinguish their natural instincts as summarily as possible. They are transient, therefore they are of no account. They are vanity, therefore to enjoy them is dangerous, if it be not sinful. But the logic of the Preacher takes a different line. Childhood and youth, or youth and manhood, are fleeting; therefore Banish sorrow from thy mind, and put away sadness from thy body. He evidently does not think the brevity and transitoriness of a thing is a reason for despising it.
The rose which you pluck in the morning withers before the next morning, but you delight yourself with its colour and perfume none the less while it lasts. A summer morning, with its dewy freshness, is a thing of only an hour or two; but you do not, for that reason, shut yourself up in your chamber, and refuse to breathe the morning scents, and to look upon the sparkle of the dewdrops. Youth and fresh manhood are things of only a few years; but their brevity is, to the Preacher, the reason why they should be enjoyed. Those have done infinite damage who have set on foot the notion that youth, from the moment it turns to religion, surrenders all pleasure, lightness of heart, and robust enjoyment; and such teachers have been betrayed into this terrible and fatal mistake through their failure to see that Gods training is not to stunt or to crush out human nature, but to develop and elevate it.1 [Note: M. R. Vincent, God and Bread, 191.]
It seems to me that the Gospel of the Transfiguration should be more widely proclaimed among us. The poets sing of it, the mystics show it, even the scientific men have some foreshadowings; but in the common ways of men it is unheard. God is Joy itself. Where is the man who shall preach with power to the multitude of the transfiguring of pleasure into joy, as well as of the like transfiguring of pain? Joy, then, says Myers, I will boldly affirm, is the aim of the Universe; that Joy which is the very bloom of Love and Wisdom; and mens souls need attuning to that inconceivable delight.2 [Note: A Modern Mystics Way.]
What in Aurelius was a passing expression, was in [the Christian] Cornelius (Marius could but note the contrast) nature, and a veritable physiognomy. It was, in fact, we may say, nothing less than the joy which Dante apprehended in the blessed spirits of the perfect; the outward expression of which, like a physical light upon human faces, from the land which is very far off, we may trace from Giotto, and even earlier, to its consummation in the purer and better work of Raffaellethe serenity, the durable cheerfulness, the blitheness of those who had been indeed delivered from death, of which the utmost degree of that famed Greek blitheness or Heiterkeit is but a transitory gleam, as in careless and wholly superficial youth.3 [Note: Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean.]
II
The Sobering Sense of Responsibility
But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement.
The second part of the text is not meant to destroy or neutralize the concession of the first sentence, but only to purify and ennoble a gladness which, without it, would be apt to be stained by many a corruption, and to make permanent a joy which, without it, would be sure to die down into the miserable, peevish, and feeble old age of which the grim picture follows, and to be quenched at last in death.
1. God intends us to live for something better than pleasure. Pleasure as relaxation is right enough, but when we make it our chief business it becomes sin. A butterfly life of vain frivolity and amusement is to prostitute the purpose of our living. God has sent us into the living world to cultivate our spiritual nature by His service. We are created for God, and we answer the end of our being only when we consecrate our lives to His glory. Anything short of making God the supreme object of our reverence and affection is to miss the great end of life. We may indulge in no sinful pleasure, and in no pleasure that is in any degree questionable: but if we make pleasure our god, the thing for which we live, then it is sin. This is to disobey the first command of the law, Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
There is always the temptation of youth to think that, because things are lawful one cannot have too much of them. Charles Lamb tells us, in one of his delightful essays, of certain people who set a house on fire in order that they might enjoy the rapture of eating roast sucking-pig. That is very much like the action of those who burn up every grave and sober thing in the lire of pleasure and sport. Laughter is a pleasant thing, but a perpetual cackle and grin is the sure mark of an idiot. Enjoyment is a gift of God, but to sacrifice and forget everything else for it is to prostitute Gods gift to the service of the devil.1 [Note: J. G. Greenhough.]
2. A mans mature years are a sort of judgment on the enjoyments and work of his earlier days. If his pleasures have been impure, shameful, and wrong; if he has been habitually guilty of excess in the indulgence of appetites, in drink, smoking, or anything akin to that; it all follows him into the real work of life, and unfits him for it. He goes forth into the world with a corrupted and diseased imagination, perhaps with a weakened body, and certainly with a debilitated mind. And if his early life has been of the frivolous, sportive, self-indulgent kind, if he has not hardened himself a little in severer things, by laying up a preparation of knowledge, by getting acquainted with the best thoughts of men, he is handicapped in all the race of life.
Perhaps there is no commoner delusion than that we may give our youth to vanity and rejoice with thoughtlessness and yet catch up the duties of life at some onward point more vigorously than if we had not known youthful madness and folly. All such imaginations are broken against the great retributive law which runs throughout life and pervades every phase of it. If we give the rein to our pleasure-loving tendencies, and walk in the ways of our heart, unmindful of higher things, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, will take hold of us till we not only do not think of higher things, but do not care to think of them, or even despise them as dreams of an impracticable Puritanism. There will grow from self-indulgence, deadness of heart; and from the love of pleasure, atheism of desire, till the very beauty of the natural life is worn away, and we fall into a selfishness which is capable neither of satisfaction nor of hope.1 [Note: Principal Tulloch, Some Facts of Religion and of Life, 243.]
In his essay on Burns, Carlyle refers to that period in the poets life when, as a mere youth, he leaves the paternal roof and goes forth into looser, louder, more exciting society; and becomes initiated in those dissipations, those vices which, says Carlyle, a certain class of philosophers have asserted to be a natural preparative for entering on active life; a kind of mud-bath, in which the youth is, as it were, necessitated to steep, and, we suppose, cleanse himself, before the real toga of Manhood can be laid on him. We shall not dispute much, he continues, with this class of philosophers; we hope they are mistaken: for Sin and Remorse so easily beset us at all stages of life, and are always such indifferent company, that it seems hard we should, at any stage, be forced and fated not only to meet but to yield to them, and even serve for a time in their leprous armada. We hope it is not so. Clear we are, at all events, it cannot be the training one receives in this Devils service, but only our determining to desert from it, that fits us for true manly Action.
3. This judgment may carry approval and reward no less than penalty. Whenever this book may have been written, we find in it numerous allusions to a state of society which give these words about a future judgment a peculiar meaning and force; for the book depicts a society under a capricious despotism, with all its corruptions and miseries. The wealthy revel in palaces, vineyards, and pleasure-grounds; kings are childish, and princes given to revelry and drunkenness; fools are uplifted, and noble men degraded; riches are not for the intelligent, or favour for the learned; to become rich is to multiply extortions; life stands at the caprice of power; sensuality runs riot. In short, the whole political fabric was falling into disrepair and decay, the rain leaking through the rotting roof; while the miserable people were ground down with ruinous exactions, in order that the rulers might revel on undisturbed. And as the book reveals this fearful social condition, so, likewise, it gives expression to the temper which grows up in mens minds after a long course of such oppressionsa kind of fatalism and hopelessness which tempts one to yield passively to the current of affairs, to believe that God has ceased to rule, and that order and right have vanished from the world, to snatch at every pleasure, to drown care in sensuality rather than try to maintain an integrity which is sure to be rewarded with personal and social ruin. That kind of temper, if it once gains headway, will affect all classes and ages. In the nobler and better-seasoned characters, it becomes a proud despair; in vulgar minds, a bestial greed, and an untramelled selfishness; in youth, a prompter to unbounded sensuality.
We can see, therefore, what a powerful antidote to this temper would be furnished by the truth of a righteous judgment. Once lodge firmly the truth that men are moving on through all the hard and bitter and unjust conditions of their time to a supreme tribunal, and you have made it impossible to believe that the world is lawless. A final judgment implies a law; and a law implies a lawgiver, and an authority to administer and vindicate the law. Thus the truth carries with it both comfort and obligation. There is a Divine order in the world; we are not finally at the mercy of chance or of mens caprice: the order will vindicate itself in time, and with itself will vindicate those who hold by it. So long as there is judgment, wrong is not eternal, and retribution is a fact. Therefore, it is better to do right, notwithstanding the oppressors wrong and the proud mans contumely. One can afford to be cheerful, even amid oppressions and troubles like these, if the time is short and a day is coming in which wrong shall be righted and worth acknowledged and fidelity rewarded.
A great German thinker has it, in reference to the history of nations, that the history of the world is the judgment of the world; and although that is not true if it is a denial of a day of final judgment, it is true in a very profound and solemn sense with regard to the daily life of every man, that, whether there be a judgment-seat beyond the grave or not, and whether this Preacher knew anything about that or not, there is going on through the whole of a mans life, and evolving itself, this solemn conviction that we are to pass away from this present life. All our days are knit together as one whole. Yesterday is the parent of to-day, and to-day is the parent of all the tomorrows. The meaning and the deepest consequence of mans life is that no feeling, no thought that flits across the mirror of his life and heart dies utterly, leaving nothing behind it. But rather the metaphor of the Apostle is the true one, That which thou sowest that shalt thou also reap.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
4. The teaching of this Old Testament sage needs to be supplemented by later revelation. He has made us indeed realize the essential soundness of life. He has given us a clear vision of its dignity and worth. He has made us feel that life is to be received with joy, and pursued with enthusiasm and courageous zeal. He has led us to the conviction that Gods approval is upon His own work, and upon the zest and joy with which men undertake that work. But he lacked what the men of the Old World lacked before the keels of Columbuss caravels grazed the shore of the Newviz., knowledge that the New World is here. He lacked what men lacked whose sky was a firmament and whose stars brightly studded that solid dome; he lacked the sense of the open sky, the myriad vastness of the world of stars, the sense of a universe fulfilling itself in an eternity of years. Had this lack and limitation been absent, it is more than likely that he would not have written his closing chapter with the melancholy description of the breaking-down of life. He might have written instead in the spirit of Rabbi Ben Ezra:
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all nor be afraid!
As Jean Paul says: We desire virtue, not as the reward of virtue, but as its continuance. Virtue can no more be rewarded than joy can; it is its own reward. And so sings Tennyson, turning the vision of the great German to music in one of his own deathless lyrics:
Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song,
Paid with a voice flying by to be lost on an endless sea
Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong
Nay, but she aimd not at glory, no lover of glory she:
Give her the glory of going on, and still to be.
The wages of sin is death: if the wages of Virtue be dust,
Would she have heart to endure for the life of the worm and the fly?
She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of the just,
To rest in a golden grove, or to bask in a summer sky:
Give her the wages of going on, and not to die.
Literature
Campbell (L.), The Christian Ideal, 134.
Dawson (G.), Sermons on Daily Life, 105.
Dewhurst (F. E.), The Investment of Truth, 257.
Farrar (F. W.), In the Days of Thy Youth, 88.
Greenhough (J. G.), in Comradeship and Character, 59.
Griffith-Jones (E.), in Comradeship and Character, 133.
James (J. A.), Sermons, i. 348.
Jowett (B.), College Sermons, 127.
Kingsley (C.), True Words for Brave Men, 148.
Lamb (R.), School Sermons, ii. 1.
Morgan (G. E.), Dreams and Realities, 55.
Thomas (J.), Sermons (Myrtle Street Pulpit), iii. 381.
Tulloch (J.), Some Facts of Religion and of Life, 232.
Vincent (M. R.), God and Bread, 189.
Christian World Pulpit, vii. 20 (W. Spensley); xxxiii. 149 (J. J. S. Perowne).
Churchmans Pulpit: Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity, xiii. 470 (C. Lowell).
Rejoice: 1Ki 18:27, 1Ki 22:15, Luk 15:12, Luk 15:13
in thy youth: Ecc 12:1, 1Ki 18:12, Lam 3:27
walk: Num 15:30, Num 22:32, Deu 29:19, Job 31:7, Psa 81:12, Jer 7:24, Jer 23:17, Jer 44:16, Jer 44:17, Act 14:16, Eph 2:2, Eph 2:3, 1Pe 4:3, 1Pe 4:4
in the sight: Ecc 2:10, Gen 3:6, Gen 6:2, Jos 7:21, 2Sa 11:2-4, Mat 5:28, 1Jo 2:15, 1Jo 2:16
know: Ecc 3:17, Ecc 12:14, Psa 50:4-6, Act 17:30, Act 17:31, Act 24:25, Rom 2:5-11, Rom 14:10, 1Co 4:5, 2Co 5:10, 2Pe 3:7, Heb 9:27, Rev 20:12-15
Reciprocal: Gen 11:6 – Behold Num 15:39 – ye seek not Jdg 11:27 – the Judge Jdg 17:6 – right Jdg 21:25 – right 1Sa 2:10 – judge 2Ch 25:8 – be strong Job 15:12 – thine heart Job 19:29 – that ye may Job 20:12 – wickedness Psa 34:11 – Come Psa 119:9 – shall Pro 1:4 – to the Pro 10:23 – General Pro 14:13 – General Pro 20:17 – is sweet Ecc 2:24 – nothing Ecc 3:22 – nothing Ecc 5:11 – what Ecc 5:18 – it is good and comely Ecc 8:6 – therefore Jer 13:10 – walk Lam 4:21 – be glad Eze 11:21 – whose Amo 4:4 – Come Amo 6:13 – which Mat 26:45 – Sleep on Mar 14:41 – Sleep Luk 12:19 – take Luk 16:2 – give Joh 5:22 – General Rom 2:16 – God Rom 14:12 – General 1Co 7:31 – use 1Co 15:32 – let 2Ti 2:22 – youthful Tit 2:6 – Young Jam 5:5 – have lived
Ecc 11:9. Rejoice, &c. This is an ironical concession, like many which occur in the Scriptures, (see 1Ki 18:27; 1Ki 22:15; Eze 28:3-4; Mat 26:45,) and in other authors: O young man, in thy youth He speaks to young men particularly, because they have both the greatest ability and the strongest inclination to pursue sensual pleasure, and are most impatient, either of restraint or admonition, Let thy heart cheer thee, &c. Indulge thy humour. and take thy fill of delights. And walk in the way of thy heart, &c. Whatsoever thine eye or heart lusteth after, deny it not to them. But know thou But in the midst of thy feasting, jollity, and mirth, consider thy reckoning, and whether thou dost not purchase thy delights at too high a price: that for all these things For all thy sinful lusts and follies; God will bring thee to judgment Will force thee to appear before his judgment-seat, to account for all thy forgetfulness of him, and neglect of his service, thy misemployment of thy time and talents, and of all the gifts of his providence and grace, and for all thy carnal mirth, sensual pleasures, and the extravagances and exorbitances of thy youthful days, as well as of thy riper years.
11:9 {h} Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thy eyes: but know thou, that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment.
(h) He derides them who set their desire in worldly pleasures as though God would not call count.
The second reason to enjoy life is that youth is fleeting. [Note: See Kaiser, Ecclesiastes . . ., p. 116.] Solomon balanced his counsel to the youth to follow his or her impulses and wholesome desires, with a reminder that God will judge us all eventually. Solomon probably thought of God’s judgments before death (cf. Ecc 2:24-26; Ecc 7:17).
"To older people it may seem to be too risky to advise a young person to walk in the ways of his heart and the sight of his eyes. Yet the advice is coupled with a reminder of responsibility before God. This is not to take away with one hand what is given with the other because a sense of responsibility belongs to youth just as vitality does." [Note: J. S. Wright, "Ecclesiastes," p. 1191.]
In all his writings, Solomon never advocated sinful self-indulgence, only the enjoyment of life’s legitimate pleasures and good gifts.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)