Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 4:6
Better [is] a handful [with] quietness, than both the hands full [with] travail and vexation of spirit.
6. Better is a handful with quietness ] The preposition is in both clauses an interpolation, and we should read “a handful of repose, two handfuls of travail and feeding on wind.” In form the saying presents a parallel to Pro 15:17, “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith;” but the thought is obviously of a less ethical character. The feeling expressed in Ecc 4:5-6 (the latter confirming the interpretation just given of the former) is such as we may think of as rising in the mind of an ambitious statesman or artist striving after fame, as he looks on the dolce far niente of a lazzarone at Naples, half-naked, basking in the sun, and revelling in the enjoyment of his water-melon. The one would at such a time, almost change places with the other, but that something after all forbids. The words have almost a verbal parallelism in our common English proverb “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Either the fools sarcasm on his successful but restless neighbor; or the comment of Solomon recommending contentment with a moderate competence. The former meaning seems preferable.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ecc 4:6
Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
Quality better than quantity
The quietness here spoken of is not the inactivity of sloth, but that restfulness of spirit which an industrious man may enjoy when his industry is pervaded by a cheerful contentment. Now, here is one of those maxims with which Ecclesiastes sought to comfort the hearts and to direct the conduct of his countrymen. Many of them might be disposed to murmur because the times were adverse to their acquisition of wealth. But he wishes them to remember that, even if the times had been more prosperous, they themselves would not necessarily have been more happy. He directs their attention away from quantity to quality of possession. One man may get more real satisfaction out of a little than another man gets out of much. Two handfuls are not necessarily better than one. It depends on what is in the hands. One handful of grain is better than two handfuls of chaff. It depends also on what kind of man has the handful or handfuls. Happiness, in its degree and quality, varies with the man who enjoys, as welt as with the means of enjoyment. Yea, and even the same man may possibly get more satisfaction out of one handful than out of two handfuls of the same thing. It depends on whether the additional handful does not bring with it something else as well. In human life it often happens that a plus involves a minus; a gain in one direction means a loss in another. This, indeed, is no argument for folding the hands in sloth or indifference; for there is no weariness like the weariness of idleness, and there is no more prolific source of cares than carelessness. But it is an argument against that spirit of envious rivalry and selfish, restless ambition, which lessens the capacity, in the very act of increasing the means, of enjoyment. This maxim of Ecclesiastes is well worth pondering. It is pitched in the same key as the maxim of the Apostle Paul: Godliness with contentment is great gain: and it reminds us of the still more inclusive maxim of our Lord Himself: A mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (T. C. Finlayson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. Better is a handful with quietness] These may be the words of the slothful man, and spoken in vindication of his idleness; as if he had said, “Every man who labours and amasses property is the object of envy, and is marked by the oppressor as a subject for spoil; better, therefore, to act as I do; gain little, and have little, and enjoy my handful with quietness.” Or the words may contain Solomon’s reflection on the subject.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These are the words, either,
1. Of the sluggard making this apology for his idleness, that his little with ease, is better than great riches got with much trouble. Or,
2. Of Solomon, who elsewhere speaks to the same purpose, as Pro 15:16,17; 17:1, and here proposeth it as a good antidote against the vanity of immoderate cares and labours for worldly goods, against which he industriously directs his speeches in divers places of this book; and particularly as a seasonable precaution against the sin of covetousness, of which he speaks in the following passage.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Hebrew; “One openhand (palm) full of quietness, than both closed hands full oftravail.” “Quietness” (mental tranquillity flowingfrom honest labor), opposed to “eating one’s own flesh” (Ec4:5), also opposed to anxious labor to gain (Ecc 4:8;Pro 15:16; Pro 15:17;Pro 16:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Better [is] a handful [with] quietness,…. These are the words of the fool, according to Aben Ezra; and which is the sense of other interpreters, particularly Mr. Broughton, who connects this verse with Ec 4:5 by adding at the end of that the word “saying”; making an excuse or an apology for himself and conduct, from the use and profitableness of his sloth; that little had with ease, and without toil and labour, is much better
than both the hands full [with] travail and vexation of spirit; than large possessions gotten with a great deal of trouble, and enjoyed with much vexation and uneasiness; in which he mistakes slothful ease for true quietness; calls honest labour and industry travail and vexation; and supposes that true contentment lies in the enjoyment of little, and cannot be had where there is much; whereas it is to be found in a good man in every state: or else these words express the true sentiments of Solomon’s mind, steering between the two extremes of slothfulness, and too toilsome labour to be rich; that it is much more eligible to have a competency, though it is but small, with a good conscience, with tranquillity of mind, with the love and fear of God, and a contented heart, than to have a large estate, with great trouble and fatigue in getting and keeping it, especially with discontent and uneasiness; and this agrees with what the wise man says elsewhere, Pr 15:16. The Targum is,
“better to a man is a handful of food with quietness of soul, and without robbery and rapine, than two handfuls of food with robbery and rapine;”
or with what is gotten in an ill way.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The fifth verse stands in a relation of contrast to this which follows: “Better is one hand full of quietness, than both fists full of labour and windy effort.” Mendelssohn and others interpret Ecc 4:5 as the objection of the industrious, and Ecc 4:6 as the reply of the slothful. Zckler agrees with Hitz., and lapses into the hypothesis of a dialogue otherwise rejected by him. As everywhere, so also here it preserves the unity of the combination of thoughts. signifies here, as little as it does anywhere else, the rest of sloth; but rest, in contrast to such activity in labour as robs a man of himself, to the hunting after gain and honour which never has enough, to the rivalry which places its goal always higher and higher, and seeks to be before others – it is rest connected with well-being (Ecc 6:5), gentle quietness (Ecc 9:17), resting from self-activity (Isa 30:15); cf. the post-bibl. , satisfaction, contentment, comfort. In a word, nahath has not here the sense of being idle or lazy. The sequence of the thoughts is this: The fool in idleness consumes his own life-strength; but, on the other hand, a little of true rest is better than the labour of windy effort, urged on by rivalry yielding no rest. is the open hollow hand, and (Assyr. hupunnu ) the hand closed like a ball, the first. “Rest” and “labour and windy effort” are the accusatives of that to which the designation of measure refers (Gesen. 118. 3); the accus. connection lay here so much the nearer, as is connected with the accus. of that with which anything is full. In “and windy effort” lies the reason for the judgment pronounced. The striving of a man who laboriously seeks only himself and loses himself in restlessness, is truly a striving which has wind for its object, and has the property of wind.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6. Better is a handful, etc. This verse confirms what has been said to the credit of the lazy man, and really assigns a reason for the statement of Ecc 4:5. It would be better to use of in place of “with,” and Hebrew usage would demand it “handful of quietness,” “both the hands full of travail.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 4:6 Better [is] an handful [with] quietness, than both the hands full [with] travail and vexation of spirit.
Ver. 6. Better is an handful with quietness. ] This is the sluggard’s plea, whereby he bolstereth himself up in his wickedness, and would make you believe that he did, non sine ratione insanire, not play the madman without good reason. To what end, saith he, should a man toil and tire out himself with hard labour to compass commodity – making a drudge and a beast of himself for a little pelf, since he knows not who shall have the spending of it, and he is sure to be either squeezed by his superiors, as Ecc 4:1 or else envied by his neighbours? as Ecc 4:4 Is not a little with ease better? a penny by begging better than twopence by true labour? It is well observed by an interpreter, that this sentence uttered by the sluggard, is, in its true meaning, not much different from that of the wise man in Pro 17:1 , but ill applied by him. Good words are not always to be trusted, from ill men especially.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 37:16, Pro 15:16, Pro 15:17, Pro 16:8, Pro 17:1
Reciprocal: Pro 15:6 – in the revenues Ecc 2:22 – and of the Luk 12:15 – for 1Th 4:11 – that 2Th 3:12 – that with
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ecc 4:6. Better is a handful with quietness, &c. These are the words, either, 1st, Of the sluggard, making this apology for his idleness, that his little, with ease, is better than great riches got with much trouble; or, 2d, of Solomon, who elsewhere speaks to the same purpose, and here proposes this antidote against the vanity of immoderate cares and labours for worldly goods, against which he industriously directs his speech in divers places of this book, and particularly in the following passage.