Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 2:2
I said of laughter, [It is] mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
2. I said of laughter, It is mad ] The choice of a word cognate with the madness of chap. Ecc 1:17, gives a special emphasis to the judgment which the man thus passes on himself. There was as much insanity in this form of life as in the other. He was plunging into madness with his eyes open and might say,
“Video meliora proboque,
Deteriora sequor.”
“I see the better, yet the worse pursue.”
Ovid, Metamorph. vii. 20.
In each case the question might be asked “What does it work? What is its outcome?” And the implied answer is “Absolutely nothing.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ecc 2:2
I said of laughter, It is mad.
The wit and the madman
If you were asked who had sat for the portrait of a madman, you would be disposed to look out for some monster, some scourge of our race, in whom vast powers had been at the disposal of ungoverned passions, and who had covered a country with weeping and with desolate families; and at first we might be readily tempted to conclude that Solomon employed somewhat exaggerated terms when he identified laughter with madness. Neither need we suppose that all laughter is indiscriminately condemned; as though gloom marked a sane person, and cheerfulness an insane. Rejoice evermore is a scriptural direction, and blithe-heartedness ought to be both felt and displayed by those who know that they have God for their Guardian, and Christ for their Surety. But it is the laughter of the world which the wise man calls madness; and there will be no difficulty in showing you, in two or three instances, how close is the parallel between the maniac and the man by whom this laughter is excited. We would first point out to you how that conflict, of which this creation is the scene, and the leading antagonists in which are Satan and God, is a conflict between falsehood and truth. The entrance of evil was effected through a lie; and when Christ promised the descent of the Holy Ghost, whose special office it was to be to regenerate human kind, to restore their lost purity, and therewith their lost happiness, He promised it under the character of the Spirit of truth; as though truth were all that was needed to the making of this earth once more a paradise. And it is in accordance with this representation of that great struggle, which fixes the regards of higher orders of intelligence, as being a struggle between falsehood and truth, that so much criminality is everywhere in Scripture attached to a lie, and that those on whom a lie may be charged, are represented as thereby more especially obnoxious to the anger of God. A lying tongue, says the wise man, is but for a moment: as though sudden vengeance might be expected to descend upon the liar, and sweep him away ere he could reiterate the falsehood. And if there be thus, as it were, a kind of awful majesty in truth, so that the swerving from it is emphatically treason against God and the soul, it follows that whatever is calculated to diminish reverence for truth, or to palliate falsehood, is likely to work as wide mischief as may well be imagined. You are all ready without hesitation to admit that nothing would go further towards loosening the bonds of society than the destroying the shame which now attaches to a lie; and accordingly you would rise up as by one common impulse to withstand any man or any authority which should propose to shield the liar, or to make his offence comparatively unimportant. But whilst the bold and direct falsehood thus gains for itself the general execration, mainly perhaps because felt to militate against the general interest, there is a ready indulgence in the more sportive falsehood, which is rather the playing with truth than the making a lie. Here it is that we shall find laughter which is madness, and identify with a madman him by whom the laughter is raised. There is very frequently a departure from truth in that mirthful discourse to which Solomon refers. In amusing a table, and causing light-heartedness and gaiety to go round the company, men may be teaching others to view with less abhorrence a lie, or diminishing in them that sanctity of truth which is at once an admirable virtue and essential to the existence of any other. I do not fear the influence of one whom the world denounces as a liar; but I do of one whom it applauds as a wit. I fear it in regard of reverence for truth–a reverence which, if it do not of itself make a great character, must be strong wheresoever the character is great. The man who passes off a clever fiction, or amusingly distorts an occurrence, or dextrously misrepresents a fact, may say that he only means to be amusing, and that nothing is further from his thoughts than the doing an injury; but nevertheless, forasmuch as it can hardly fail but that he will lower the majesty of truth in the eyes of his neighbour, there may be equally ample reason for assenting to the wise mans decision–I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? But we have not yet given the worst case of that laughter which may be identified with madness. It is very true, that whatever tends to diminish mens abhorrence of a lie, tends equally to the spreading confusion and wretchedness, and may therefore be justly classed amongst things which resemble the actings of a maniac. It is also true that this tendency exists in much of that admired conversation whose excellence virtually lies in its falseness; so that the correspondence is clear between the wit and the madman. But it is not perhaps till the laughter is turned upon sacred things that we have before us the madness in all its wildness and in all its injuriousness. The man who in any way exercises his wit upon the Bible conveys undoubtedly an impression, whether he intend it or not, that he is not a believer in the inspiration of the Bible; for it is altogether insupposable that a man who really recognized in the Bible the Word of the living God, who felt that its pages had been traced by the very hand which spread out the firmament, should select from it passages to parody, or expressions which might be thrown into a ludicrous form. It may be true that he does this only in joke, and with no evil design; he never meant, he may tell you, when he introduced Scripture ridiculously, or amused his companions by sarcastic allusions to the peculiarities of the pious–he never meant to recommend a contempt for religion, or to insinuate a disbelief in the Bible, and perhaps he never did; but nevertheless, even if you acquit him of harmful intention, and suppose him utterly unconscious that he is working a moral injury, he who frames jokes on sacred things, or points his wit with scriptural allusions, may do far more mischief to the souls of his fellow-men than if he engaged openly in assaulting the great truths of Christianity. If you have heard a text quoted in a ridiculous sense, or applied to some laughable occurrence, you will hardly be able to separate the text from that occurrence; the association will be permanent; and when you hear the text again, though it may be in the house of God, or under circumstances which make you wish for the most thorough concentration of thought on the most awful things, yet will there come back upon you- all the joke and all the parody, so that the mind will be dissipated and the very sanctuary profaned. And hence the justice of identifying with madness the laughter excited by reference to sacred things. Now, the upshot of the whole matter is, that we ought to set a watch upon our tongues, to pray God to keep the door of our lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Of all the gifts with which we have been entrusted, the gift of speech is perhaps that through which we may work most of evil or of good, and nevertheless it is that of whose right exercise we seem to make least account. It appears to us a hard saying, that for every idle word which they speak men shall give an account at the last, and we scarcely discern any proportion between a few syllables uttered without thought and those retributive judgments which must be looked for hereafter; but if you observe how we have been able to vindicate the correctness of the assertion of our text, though it be only the idle talker whose laughter is declared to be madness, effecting the same results, and producing the same evils as the fury of the uncontrolled maniac, you will see that a word may be no insignificant thing–that its consequences may be widely disastrous, and certainly the speaker is answerable for the consequences which may possibly ensue, however God may prevent their actual occurrence. The fiction may not make a liar, and the jest may not make an infidel, but since it is the tendency of the fiction to make liars, and the tendency of the jest to make infidels, he who invents the one, or utters the other, is as criminal as though the result had been the same as the tendency. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. I said of laughter, It is mad] Literally “To laughter I said, O mad one! and to mirth, What is this one doing?”
Solomon does not speak here of a sober enjoyment of the things of this world, but of intemperate pleasure, whose two attendants, laughter and mirth are introduced by a beautiful prosopopoeia as two persons; and the contemptuous manner wherewith he treats them has something remarkably striking. He tells the former to her face that she is mad; but as to the latter, he thinks her so much beneath his notice, that he only points at her, and instantly turns his back.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I said of laughter; of excessive mirth, which discovers itself by immoderate laughter, and other outward gestures.
It is mad; this is an act and sign of madness, more fit for fools, who know nothing, than for wise men, at least in this sin fill, and dangerous, and deplorable state of mankind, which calls for seriousness and sorrow from all considerate persons, in which case it is like the laughter of one in a frenzy; and none but a fool or madman can take satisfaction in such light and frothy pleasures, or expect happiness from them.
What doeth it? What good doeth it? or how can it make men happy? I challenge all the epicures in the world to give me a solid and satisfactory answer.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. laughterincludingprosperity, and joy in general (Job8:21).
madthat is, when madethe chief good; it is harmless in its proper place.
What doeth it?Of whatavail is it in giving solid good? (Ecc 7:6;Pro 14:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I said of laughter, [it is] mad,…. The risible faculty in man is given him for some usefulness; and when used in a moderate way, and kept within due bounds, is of service to him, and conduces to the health of his body, and the pleasure of his mind; but when used on every trivial occasion, and at every foolish thing that is said or done, and indulged to excess, it is mere madness, and makes a man look more like a madman and a fool than a wise man; it lasts but for a while, and the end of it is heaviness, Ec 7:6. Or, “I said to laughter, [thou art] mad” x; and therefore will have nothing to do with thee in the excessive and criminal way, but shun thee, as one would do a mad man: this therefore is not to be reckoned into the pleasure he bid his soul go to and enjoy;
and of mirth, what doth it? what good does do? of what profit and advantage is it to man? If the question is concerning innocent mirth, the answer may be given out of Pr 15:13; but if of carnal sinful mirth, there is no good arises from that to the body or mind; or any kind of happiness to be enjoyed that way, and therefore no trial is to be made of it. What the wise man proposed to make trial of, and did, follows in the next verses.
x “risui dixi, insanis”, Mercerus, Drusius, Amama; “vel insanus es”, Piscator, Schmidt, Rambachius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“To laughter I said: It is mad; and to mirth: What doth it issue in?” Laughter and mirth are personified; meholal is thus not neut. (Hitz., a foolish matter), but mas. The judgment which is pronounced regarding both has not the form of an address; we do not need to supply and , it is objectively like an oratio obliqua: that it is mad; cf. Psa 49:12. In the midst of the laughter and revelling in sensual delight, the feeling came over him that this was not the way to true happiness, and he was compelled to say to laughter, It has become mad ( part. Poal, as at Psa 102:9), it is like one who is raving mad, who finds his pleasure in self-destruction; and to joy (mirth), which disregards the earnestness of life and all due bounds, he is constrained to say, What does it result in? = that it produces nothing, i.e., that it brings forth no real fruit; that it produces only the opposite of true satisfaction; that instead of filling, it only enlarges the inner void. Others, e.g., Luther, “What doest thou?” i.e., How foolish is thy undertaking! Even if we thus explain, the point in any case lies in the inability of mirth to make man truly and lastingly happy, – in the inappropriateness of the means for the end aimed at. Therefore is thus meant just as in (Hitz.), and , effect, Isa 32:17. Thus Mendelssohn: What profit does thou bring to me? Regarding ; = mah – zoth , Gen 3:13, where it is shown that the demonstrative pronoun serves here to sharpen the interrogative: What then, what in all the world!
After this revelling in sensual enjoyment has been proved to be a fruitless experiment, he searches whether wisdom and folly cannot be bound together in a way leading to the object aimed at.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(2) Pro. 14:13.
Mad.Psa. 102:9.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. I said of laughter More literally, To mirth I said, Thou art mad, ( foolish,) and to pleasure, what doth she accomplish, or amount to?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 2:2. I said of laughter, it is mad I said to laughter, how dost thou shine? and to pleasure, what does that avail? See the note on the 17th verse of the foregoing chapter. The sum of these verses is, secondly; neither does the enjoyment of pleasure yield a solid happiness; for he who enjoys it must be soon convinced that it leaves no solid satisfaction behind it; which our author proves by his own experience, having found but a vain eclat in mirth and pleasure.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 829
THE EMPTINESS OF WORLDLY MIRTH
Ecc 2:2. I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doeth it?
WHO is it that has ventured to speak thus respecting that which constitutes, in the worlds estimation, the great happiness of life? Was he an ignorant man? or one who from envy decried a thing which he was not able to attain? or an inexperienced man, who had no just means of forming a judgment? or an irritated man, who vented thus his spleen against an object that had disappointed him? Or was he one whose authority in this matter we are at liberty to question! No: it was the wisest of the human race, who had more ample means of judging than any other of the children of men, and had tried the matter to the uttermost: it was Solomon himself, under the influence of the Spirit of God, recording this, not only as the result of his own experience, but as the declaration of Jehovah, by him, for the instruction of the world in all future ages. He had been left by God to try the vain experiment, whether happiness was to be found in any thing but God. He tried it, first, in the pursuit of knowledge; which, to a person of his enlarged mind, certainly promised most fair to yield him the satisfaction which he sought. But partly from the labour requisite for the attainment of knowledge; partly from discovering how little could be known by persons of our finite capacity; partly also from the insufficiency of knowledge to satisfy the innumerable wants of man; and partly from the disgust which had been created in his mind by the insight which his wisdom gave him into the ignorance and folly of the rest of mankind; he left it upon record, as his deliberate judgment, that in much wisdom is much grief; and that he who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow [Note: Ecc 1:18.]. He then turned to pleasure, as the most probable source of happiness: I said in my heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth: therefore enjoy pleasure. But being equally disappointed in that, he adds, Behold, this also is vanity [Note: ver. 1.]. Then, in the words of my text, he further adds, I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
In discoursing on this subject, I shall,
1.
Shew what that is which he here pronounces to be vanity
It becomes us, in considering such weighty declarations us that before us, to attain the most precise and accurate views of the terms employed; neither attenuating the import of them on the one hand, nor exaggerating it on the other.
We are not, then, to understand the text as decrying all cheerfulness
[The Christian, above all people upon earth, has reason to be cheerful. And religion in no way tends to destroy the gaiety of the human mind, but only to direct it towards proper objects, and to restrain it within proper bounds. The ways of religion are represented as ways of pleasantness and peace. And the fruits of the Spirit are, love, joy, peace: all of which suppose a measure of hilarity, and the innocence of that hilarity, when arising from a becoming source, and kept within the limits of sobriety and sound wisdom. Doubtless that tumultuous kind of joy which is generally denominated mirth, and which vents itself in immoderate laughter, is altogether vain and bad: but a placidity of mind, exercising itself in a way of brotherly love and of cheerful benevolence, can never be censured as unprofitable, much less can it be condemned as verging towards insanity.]
Neither, on the other hand, are we to restrict the text to licentious and profane mirth
[That needed not to be stigmatized in so peculiar a manner: because the fully of such mirth carries its own evidence along with it. We need only to see it in others: and if we ourselves are not partakers of it, we shall not hesitate to characterize it by some opprobrious or contemptuous name. We need neither the wisdom of Solomon, nor his experience, to pass upon it the judgment it deserves.]
The conduct reprobated in our text is, the seeking of our happiness in carnal mirth
[Solomon particularly specifies this: I said in my heart. Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth. I will see whether that will afford me the happiness which I am in pursuit of. And we may suppose, that, in the prosecution of this object. he summoned around him all that was gay and lively in his court, and all that could contribute towards the attainment of it. We may take a survey of the state of society in what may be called the fashionable world, and see how the votaries of pleasure spend their time. They go from one vanity to another, hoping that in a succession of amusements they shall find a satisfaction which nothing else can impart. Plays, balls, concerts, routs, the pleasures of the field, of the race-course, of the card-table, form a certain round of employment, which those who travel in it expect to find productive of happiness, of such happiness at least as they affect. And this. I conceive, is what Solomon intended particularly to reprobate as fully and madness. Of course, we must include also in the same description the more vulgar amusements to which the lower classes resort. All, according to their taste, or the means afforded them for enjoyment, whilst they pursue the same object, are obnoxious to the same censure. The degree of refinement which may be in their pursuits makes no difference in this matter. Whatever it be which calls forth their mirth and laughter, it is equally unprofitable and equally insane. So Solomon judged; and]
We now proceed
II.
To confirm his testimony
Let us take a candid view of this matter: let us consider pleasure in its true light: let us consider its aspect on us,
1.
As men
[As men, we possess faculties of a very high order, which we ought to cultivate, and which, when duly improved, exalt and dignify our nature. But behold the votaries of pleasure; how low do they sink themselves by the depravity of their taste, and the emptiness of their occupations! A man devoid of wisdom may abound in mirth and laughter as well as he: and there will be found very little difference in their feelings; except, as the more enlarged mens capacities are for higher objects, the keener sense will they have of the emptiness of their vain pursuits. In truth, we may appeal even to themselves in confirmation of what Solomon has said: for there are no persons more convinced of the unsatisfying nature of such pursuits, than those who follow them with the greatest avidity. But let Scripture speak: She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth [Note: 1Ti 5:6.]. It is the fool alone that can say, Let us eat, drink, and be merry [Note: Luk 12:19.].]
2.
As sinners
[As sinners we have a great work to do; even to call to mind, and to mourn over, the sins of our whole lives, and to seek reconciliation with our offended God The time, too, which is afforded us for this is very short and very uncertain And, oh! what an issue awaits our present exertions; even heaven with all its glory, or hell with all its inconceivable and everlasting terrors! Have persons so circumstanced any time for mirth, or any disposition to waste their precious hours in laughter? Is it not much more suitable to them to be engaged according to the direction of St. James, Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness; humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up [Note: Jam 4:9-10.]? ]
3.
As the redeemed of the Lord
[What redeemed soul can contemplate the price paid for his redemption, and laugh? Go, my Brother, to Gethsemane, and see thy Saviour bathed in a bloody sweat. Go to Calvary, and behold him stretched upon the cross. Hear his heart-rending cry, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me? See the sun himself veiling his face in darkness, and the Lord of glory bowing his head in death: and then tell me, whether you feel much disposition for mirth and laughter? or whether such a state of mind would become you? Methinks, I need add no more. Your own consciences will attest the justice of Solomons remarks. But if there be an advocate for mirth yet unconvinced, then I put it to him to answer that significant question in my text, What doeth it?]
Application
1.
Are any disposed to complain that I make religion gloomy?
[Remember, it is of carnal mirth that I have spoken: and of that, not in its occasional sallies, from a buoyancy of spirit, and in combination with love, but of its being regarded as a source of happiness, and of its constituting, as it were, a portion of our daily employment. And if I wrest this from you, do I leave you a prey to melancholy? Go to religion; and see whether that do not furnish you with mirth and laughter of a purer kind: with mirth that is not unprofitable, with laughter that is not mad? The very end of the Gospel is, to give you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heariness: and if you believe in Christ, it is not merely your privilege, but your duty to rejoice in him, yea, to rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and glorified. If the Church, on account of temporal deliverances, could say, Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing [Note: Psa 126:1-2.]: much more may you, on account of the salvation which has been vouchsafed to you. Only, therefore, let the grounds of your joy be right, and we consent that your mourning be turned into dancing, and that to the latest hour of your lives you put off your sackcloth and gird you with gladness [Note: Psa 30:11.]. Instead of pronouncing such mirth madness, we will declare it to be your truest wisdom.]
2.
Are there those amongst you who accord with Solomon?
[Remember, then, to seek those as your associates who are like-minded with you in this respect. Affect not the company of those who delight in laughter, and in carnal mirth; for they will only draw you from God, and rob you of the happiness which you might otherwise enjoy. If they appear happy, remember that their mirth is like the crackling of thorns under a pot [Note: Ecc 7:6.]: it may make a blaze for a moment; but it soon expires in spleen and melancholy. Be careful, too, to live nigh to God, and in sweet communion with your Lord and Saviour: for if you draw back from God in secret, you will, in respect of happiness, be in a worse condition than the world themselves: for whilst you deny yourselves the pleasure which you might have in carnal things, you will have no real pleasure in spiritual exercises. But be true to your principles, and you never need envy the poor worldlings their vain enjoyments. They drink of a polluted cistern, that contains nothing but what is insipid and injurious, and will prove fatal to their souls; but you draw from the fountain of living waters, which whosoever drinks of, shall live for ever.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 2:2 I said of laughter, [It is] mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
Ver. 2. I said of mirth, It is mad, ] q.d., Thou mad fool, what dost thou? Yet is not mirth amiss, so it be moderate; nor laughter unlawful – as some Anabaptists in Calvin’s time held – so that it be well limited. Carnal mirth, and abuse of lawful things, doth mightily weaken, intenerate, and emasculate the spirit; yea, it draws out the very vigour and vivacity of it, and is therefore to be avoided. Some are so afraid of sadness that they banish all seriousness; they affect mirth as the eel doth mud, or the toad ditches. These are those that dance to the timbrel and harp, but suddenly turn into hell. Job 21:12-13
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
of laughter = to laughter.
It is mad. See note on “madness”, Ecc 1:17.
of mirth = to mirth.
What doeth it? = What doth she do?
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I said: Solomon is not speaking here of sober enjoyment of the things of the world, but of intemperate pleasure, whose two attendants, laughter and mirth, are introduced by a beautiful prosopopoeia, as two persons, whom he treats with the utmost contempt.
It is: Ecc 7:2-6, Pro 14:13, Isa 22:12, Isa 22:13, Amo 6:3-6, 1Pe 4:2-4
Reciprocal: 1Sa 25:36 – merry Ecc 7:6 – as Ecc 10:19 – feast Mat 13:45 – seeking Luk 6:25 – laugh Jam 4:9 – let
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE LOUD LAUGH THAT SHOWS THE VACANT MIND
I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
Ecc 2:2
Solomon says of the mirthful man, of the man who makes others laugh, that he is a madman. We need not suppose that all laughter is indiscriminately condemned, as though gloom marks a sane person and cheerfulness an insane. Rejoice evermore is a Scriptural direction, and blithe-heartedness ought to be both felt and displayed by those who know that they have God for their Guardian and Christ for their Surety. It is the laughter of the world which the wise man calls madness.
I. That conflict of which this creation is the scene, and the leading antagonists in which are Satan and God, is a conflict between falsehood and truth.And it is in consequence of this that so much criminality is everywhere in Scripture attached to a lie, and that those on whom a lie may be charged are represented as more especially obnoxious to the anger of God. Now, whilst the bold and direct falsehood gains for itself general execration, mainly perhaps because felt to militate against the general interest, there is a ready indulgence for the more sportive falsehood which is rather the playing with truth than the making a lie. Here it is that we shall find laughter which is madness, and identify with a madman him by whom the laughter is raised. The man who passes off a clever fiction, or amusingly distorts an occurrence, or dexterously misrepresents a fact, may say that he only means to be amusing; but as he can hardly fail to lower the majesty of truth in the eyes of his neighbour, there may be ample reason for assenting to the wise mans decision, I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
II. But it is not perhaps till laughter is turned upon sacred things that we have before us the madness in all its wildness and injuriousness.The man who in any way exercises his wit upon the Bible conveys undoubtedly an impression, whether he intend it or not, that he is not a believer in the inspiration of the Bible; and he may do far more mischief to the souls of his fellow-men than if he engaged openly in assaulting the great truths of Christianity.
III. The great general inference from this subject is that we ought to set a watch upon our tongues, to pray God to keep the door of our lips. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt.
Canon Melvill.
Illustration
Luther says, Many a one arranges all his matters with much toil and trouble, that he may have repose and peace in his old age, but God disposes otherwise, so that he comes into affairs that cause his unrest then to commence. Many a one seeks his joy in lust and licentiousness, and his life is embittered ever after. Therefore, if God does not give joy and pleasure, but we strive after it, and endeavour to create it of ourselves, no good will come of it, but it is, as Solomon says, all vanity. The best gladness and delight are those which one does not seek (for a fly may easily fall into our broth), but that which God gives to our hand.