Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 4:9
Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.
9. Two are better than one ] The strain of moralising which follows indicates at least the revived capacity for a better feeling. As the Debater had turned from the restless strivings of the seeker after wealth to the simple enjoyment of the labouring man or even the sensuous pleasure of the indolent, so now he turns from the isolation of the avaricious to the blessings of companionship. Here at least, in that which carries a man out of himself, there is a real good, a point scored as “gain.” Here also, over and above his own experience the Seeker may have been helped by the current thought of his Greek teachers, the of the proverb, or the lines of Homer,
,
,
.
“When two together go, each for the other
Is first to think what best will help his brother;
But one who walks alone, though wise in mind,
Of purpose slow and counsel weak we find.”
Iliad, x. 224 6.
So the Greek proverb ran as to friends
, .
“Hand cleanseth hand, and finger finger helps.”
The “good reward” is more than the mere money result of partnership, and implies the joy of
“United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard.”
The literature of well-nigh all ages and races abound in expressions of the same thought. Aristotle dedicates two whole books (viii. ix.) of his Ethics to the subject of Friendship, and Cicero made it the theme of one of his most finished essays. Commonly, however, men rested it, as the writer does here, mainly on the basis of utility. “The wise man,” says Seneca ( Epist. ix. 8) from his higher Stoic standpoint, “needs a friend, not as Epicurus taught, that he may have one to sit by his bed when he is ill, or to help him when he is poor or in prison, but that he may have one by whose bed he may sit, whom he may rescue when he is attacked by foes.” We may point also to Pro 17:17; Pro 27:17, and the Jewish proverb “a man without friends is like a left hand without the right” ( Pirke Aboth, f. 30. 2) as utterances of a like nature. It is, however to be noted, in connexion with the line of thought that has been hitherto followed in these notes as to the date and authorship of the book, that the preciousness of friendship as one of the joys of life was specially characteristic of the school of Epicurus (Zeller, Stoics and Epicureans, c. xx.). It was with them the highest of human goods, and the wise would value it as the chief element of security (Diog. Laert. x. 1. 148). The principle thus asserted finds, it may be added, its highest sanction in the wisdom of Him who sent out His disciples “two and two together” (Luk 10:1).
if they fall ] The special illustration appears to be drawn from the experience of two travellers. If one slip or stumble on a steep or rocky path the other is at hand to raise him, while, if left to himself, he might have perished.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ecc 4:9-12
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour.
The necessity and benefits of religious society
I. Prove the truth of the wise mans assertion, that, two are better than one, and that in reference to society in general, and religious societies in particular. And how can this be done better than by showing that it is absolutely necessary for the welfare both of the bodies and souls of men? Indeed, if we look upon man as he came out of the hands of his Maker, we imagine him to be perfect, entire, lacking nothing. But God, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, saw something still wanting to make Adam happy. And what was that? Why, an help meet for him. And if this were the case of man before the fall; if a help was meet for him in a state of perfection; surely since the fall, when we come naked and helpless out of our mothers womb, when our wants increase with our years, and we can scarcely subsist a day without the mutual assistance of each other, well may we say, It is not good for man to be alone. Society, then, we see, is absolutely necessary in respect to our bodily and personal wants. If we carry our view farther, and consider mankind as divided into different cities, countries, and nations, the necessity of it will appear yet more evident. For how can communities be kept up, or commerce carried on, with our society? Many other instances might be given of the necessity of society in reference to our bodily, personal, and national wants. But what are all these when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, in comparison of the infinite greater need of it with respect to the soul? Let us suppose ourselves in some degree to have tasted the good word of life, and to have felt the powers of the world to come, influencing and moulding our souls into a religious frame; to be fully and heartily convinced that we are soldiers listed under the banner of Christ, and to have proclaimed open war, at our baptism, against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and have, perhaps, frequently renewed our obligations so to do by partaking of the Lords Supper; that we are surrounded with millions of foes without, and infested with a legion of enemies within; that we are commanded to shine as lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; that we are travelling to a long eternity, and need all imaginable helps to show, and encourage us in, our way thither. Let us, I say, reflect on all this, and then how shall each of us cry out, Brethren, what a necessary thing it is to meet together in religious societies! The primitive Christians were fully sensible of this, and therefore we find them continually keeping up communion with each other (Act 2:42; Act 4:23; Act 9:19; Act 12:12). And it is reported of the Christians in after ages that they used to assemble together before daylight to sing a psalm to Christ as God. So precious was the communion of saints in those days.
II. Some reasons why two are better than one, especially in religious society.
1. As man in his present condition cannot always stand upright, but by reason of the frailty of his nature cannot but fall; one eminent reason why two are better than one, or, in other words, one great advantage of religious society is, that when they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.
2. It is an observation no less true than common, that kindled coals if placed asunder soon go out, but if heaped together quicken and enliven each other, and afford a lasting heat. The same will hold good in the case now before us. If Christians kindled by the grace of God unite, they will quicken and enliven each other; but if they separate and keep asunder, no marvel if they soon grow cool or tepid. If two or three meet together in Christs name, they will have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
3. Hitherto we have considered the advantages of religious societies as a great preservative against falling into sin and lukewarmness, and that too from our own corruptions. But what says the wise son of Sirach? My son, when thou goest to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation; and that not only from inward, but outward foes; particularly from those two grand adversaries, the world and the devil: for no sooner will thine eye be bent heavenward, but the former will be immediately diverting it another way, telling thee thou needest not be singular in order to be religious; that you may be a Christian without going so much out of the common road. But see here the advantage of religious company; for supposing thou findest thyself thus surrounded on every side, and unable to withstand such horrid (though seemingly friendly) counsels, haste away to thy companions, and they will teach thee a truer and better lesson; they will tell thee that thou must be singular if thou wilt be religious; and that it is as impossible for a Christian, as for a city set upon a hill, to be hidden: that if thou wilt be an almost Christian (and as good be none at all) thou mayest live in the same idle, indifferent manner as thou seest most other people do; but if thou wilt be not only almost, but altogether a Christian, they will inform thee thou must go a great deal farther: that thou must not only faintly seek, but earnestly strive to enter in at the strait gate: that there is but one way now to heaven, as formerly, even through the narrow passage of a sound conversion: and that in order to bring about this mighty work, thou must undergo a constant but necessary discipline of fasting, watching, and prayer. And, therefore, the only reason why those friends give thee such advice is, because they are not willing to take so much pains themselves; or, as our Saviour told Peter on a like occasion, because they savour not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
III. The several duties incumbent on every member of a religious society as such.
1. Mutual reproof.
2. Mutual exhortation.
3. Mutual assisting and defending each other. (G. Whitefield, M. A.)
Two better than one
An axiom like this needs no discussion. No man is at his best alone. Some powers are dormant and practically useless to the individual. Competition is one form of stimulus. It may act through our selfishness. We desire to surpass another, to do better or acquire more and so meet oppositions and antagonisms with resoluteness. As iron sharpeneth iron, so intellects may be whetted and made keener by mental attrition. The axe does not sharpen itself on itself, but by a stone. So are human minds improved by these emulative endeavours. But love is a better discipline than competition. It is akin to the regenerative power of God. Two friends walk in loving unity and fellowship. They aim to enlarge their faculties of observation. The two see more objects than one pair of eyes could possibly see, perhaps threefold or tenfold, for in the friendly effort, each to excel, their individual faculties are more vigilant than if each were alone. In church life these principles of development constantly obtain. Some come to the place of worship and instruction with the true hunger of the soul. They not only help the preacher, who may represent the original unit by their added sympathy, but enlarge their own spiritual appreciation of truth. Failure to co-operate in church work is crippling. It is like putting the minus sign before a quantity. You cripple not only a finger by removing a joint, but embarrass the whole hand. The entire grip is gone for ever. Paralyze the little muscles that play over a pulley moving the eyelid and the lid drops over the eye. So the weakest member of a church may help or hinder the integrity and efficiency of the whole body of Christ. As indifference is deadening and disheartening, whether in religious or political enterprise, when people are slack, dubious and apathetic, so co-operation stimulates and the heart of the toiler rises with courage and hope. It may be objected that one loses his individuality. But no one is strictly independent. Material forces are adjusted to each other, as the centripetal and centrifugal, day and night, attraction and repulsion, muscular flexion and extension. Souls have their orbits as well as planets. These may be contracted or enlarged according to the influences exerted. No man liveth to himself or is independent of shrinking or quickening influences. If you come statedly and devoutedly to the sanctuary, you secure a blessing to yourself and you help God to convert men. So, too, in the last place, in Christian companionship, two are better than one. For if one fall by the way the other may lift him to his feet. Thus the crosses and losses of life become more tolerable, and the unity and harmony of earthly fellowship become prophetic of the unbroken and perfected felicities of heaven. (C. R. Barnes.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Two are better than one] Married life is infinitely to be preferred to this kind of life, for the very reasons alleged below, and which require no explanation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Two, who live together in any kind of society, and join their powers together in any enterprises; which he opposeth to that humour of the covetous man, who desired to live alone, as was now said.
A good reward for their labour; both have great benefit by such combinations and conjunctions of their counsels and abilities, whereby they do exceedingly support, and encourage, and strengthen one another, and effect many things which neither of them alone could do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Twoopposed to “one”(Ec 4:8). Ties of union,marriage, friendship, religious communion, are better than theselfish solitariness of the miser (Ge2:18).
rewardAdvantageaccrues from their efforts being conjoined. The Talmud says,”A man without a companion is like a left hand without theright.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Two [are] better than one,…. The wise man takes occasion, from the solitariness Of the covetous man before described, to show in this and some following verses the preferableness and advantages of social life; which, as it holds true in things natural and civil, so in things spiritual and religious; man is a sociable creature, was made to be so; and it was the judgment of God, which is according to truth, and who can never err, that it was not good for man to be alone, Ge 2:18. It is best to take a wife, or at least to have a friend or companion, more or less to converse with. Society is preferable to solitariness; conversation with a friend is better than to be always alone; the Targum is,
“two righteous men in a generation are better than one;”
such may be helpful to each other in their counsels and comforts, and mutual aids and assistances in things temporal and spiritual. The Midrash interprets this of the study in the law together, and of two that trade together, which is better than studying or trading separately;
because they have a good reward for their labour; the pleasure and profit they have in each other’s company and conversation; in religious societies, though there is a labour in attendance on public worship, in praying and conferring together, in serving one another in love, and bearing one another’s burdens, yet they have a good reward in it all; they have the presence of Christ with them, for, where two or three are met together in his name, he is with them; and whatsoever two of them agree to ask in his name they have it; and if two of them converse together about spiritual things, it is much if he does not make a third with them; besides they have a great deal of pleasure in each other’s company, and much profit in their mutual instructions, advices, and reproofs; they sharpen each other’s countenances, quicken and comfort each other’s souls, establish one another in divine truth, and strengthen each other’s hands and hearts.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Better are two together than one, seeing they have a good reward in their labour.” By hashshenaim , the author refers to such a pair; haehhad is one such as is just described. The good reward consists in this, that each one of the two has the pleasant consciousness of doing good to the other by his labour, and especially of being helpful to him. In this latter general sense is grounded the idea of the reward of faithful fellowship:
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
9. Better than one That is, happier. If the avaricious man would ally himself to a friend, his enjoyment would be increased.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 4:9. Because they have a good reward Because they have a better reward for their common labour.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. (10) For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. (11) Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? (12) And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
If we spiritualize these verses, they will be beautiful and instructive. For if Jesus and my soul be the two here spoken of, sure I am, that I shall be lifted up whensoever I fall. In every place, and upon every occasion, my advantages will be great indeed. I shall find warmth, and life, and light, and love. But without Jesus, there is a woe indeed, and a fatal fall: for who but Jesus, can raise a fallen sinner? In his strength I shall be strong, and if thus joined to the Lord Jesus by one Spirit, even God the Holy Ghost, here is a three-fold cord, which cannot be broken.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 4:9 Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
Ver. 9. Two are better than one. ] Friendly society is far beyond that wretched “aloneness” of the covetous wretch; Ecc 4:8 he “joins house to house and land to land, that he may live alone in the midst of the earth.” Isa 5:8
“Quin sine rivali, seque et sua solus amato.” – Horat.
Let him enjoy his moping solitariness, if he can. “It is not good for man to be alone,” saith God; Gen 2:18 and he that loves to be alone is either a beast or a god, saith the philosopher a Man is , a sociable creature – he is “nature’s good fellow,” and holds this for a rule, Optimum solarium sodalitium. There is great comfort in good company: next to communion with God is the communion of saints. Christ sent out his apostles by two and two. Mar 6:7 He himself came from heaven to converse with us; and shall we, like stoics, stye up ourselves, and not daily run into good company? The evil spirit is for solitariness, God is for society. b He dwells in the “assembly of his saints”; yea, there he hath a delight to dwell, calling the Church his Hephzibah, Isa 62:4 and the saints were David’s Hephzibam, “his delight.” Psa 16:3 Neither doth God nor good men take pleasure in a stern, froward austerity, or wild retiredness, but in a mild affableness and amiable conversation.
a Aristot., Polit. i.
b Dupla et compaginata pleraque fecit Deus, ut coelum et terram, solem et lunam, marem et feminam. – Orig. in Gen. i. Vide Erasm. in Adagio. S
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Ecc 4:9-12
9Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. 11Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? 12And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
Ecc 4:9-12 This paragraph speaks of the advantage of companionship. This is the same Hebrew term a second (BDB 1040) from Ecc 4:8 used in Ecc 4:9-12. Two are always better than one (BDB 25) and three better than two (cf. Ecc 4:12 b).
Another human being changes the equation. Now self is not the only issue. Now the focus and effect of the Fall are reduced. Companionship and community trump isolation and self.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
are: Gen 2:18, Exo 4:14-16, Num 11:14, Pro 27:17, Hag 1:14, Mar 6:7, Act 13:2, Act 15:39, Act 15:40, 1Co 12:18-21
a good: Rth 2:12, Joh 4:36, 2Jo 1:8
Reciprocal: Exo 4:27 – Go into Exo 31:6 – I have given Jdg 13:23 – his wife 1Sa 23:16 – strengthened 1Ch 19:12 – If the Syrians Ezr 1:4 – help him Ecc 4:8 – one 1Co 12:22 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ecc 4:9. Two Or more, who live together in any kind of society, and join their powers together in pursuit of any important object; are better than one Act more cheerfully, and accomplish their designs more readily, than any of them could do in a solitary state; because they have a good reward for their labour Have great benefit by such combinations and conjunctions of their counsels and abilities, whereby they exceedingly support, encourage, and strengthen each other, and effect many things which none of them could have effected alone. Gregory Thaumaturgus, says Bishop Patrick, understands Solomon as speaking here of , living in communion, or fellowship together, which he shows to be profitable, both to procure us greater happiness, which is the subject of the ninth verse, and to preserve us in the enjoyment of it when we have attained it, which is the subject of the three following verses.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:9 {f} Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
(f) As when man is alone, he can neither help himself nor others, he shows that men should live in mutual society to the intent that they may be profitable one to another, and that their things may increase.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Yet these are capable of a nobler Motive and Mode.
Ecc 4:9-16
Now a jealous rivalry culminating in mere avarice, -that surely is not the wisest or noblest spirit of which those are capable who devote themselves to affairs. Even “the idols of the market” may have a purer cult. Business, like wisdom or mirth, may neither be, nor contain, the supreme Good: still, like them, it is not in itself and of necessity an evil. There must be a better mode of devotion to it than this selfish and greedy one; and such a mode Coheleth, before he pursues his argument to a close, pauses to point out. As if anticipating a modern theory which grows in favour with the wiser sort of mercantile men, he suggests that cooperation-of course I use the word in its etymological rather than in its technical sense-should be substituted for competition. “Two are better than one,” he argues; “union is better than isolation; conjoint labour brings the larger reward” (Ecc 4:9). To bring his suggestion home to the business bosom of men, he uses five illustrations, four of which have a strong Oriental colouring. The first is that of two pedestrians (Ecc 4:10); if one should fall-and, such an accident, owing to the bad roads and long cumbrous robes common in the East, was by no means infrequent-the other is ready to set him on his feet; while, if he is alone, the least that can befall him is that his robe will be trampled and bemired before he can gather himself up again. In the second illustration (Ecc 4:11), our two travellers, wearied by their journey, sleep together at its close. Now in Syria the nights are often keen and frosty, and the heat of the day makes men more susceptible to the cold. The sleeping chambers, moreover, have only unglazed lattices which let in the frosty air as well as the welcome light; the bed is commonly a simple mat, the bedclothes only the garments worn through the day. And therefore the natives huddle together for the sake of warmth. To lie alone was to lie shivering in the chill night air. The third illustration (Ecc 4:12) is also taken from the East. Our two travellers, lying snug and warm on their common mat, buried in slumber, that “dear repose for limbs with travel tired,” were very likely to be disturbed by thieves who had dug a hole through the clay walls of the house, or crept under the tent, to carry off what they could. These thieves, always on the alert for travellers, are marvellously supple, rapid, and silent in their movements; but as the traveller, aware of his danger, commonly puts his “bag of needments” or valuables under his head, it does sometimes happen that the deftest thief will rouse him by withdrawing it. If one of our two wayfarers was thus aroused, he would call on his comrade for help, and between them the thief would stand a poor chance; but the solitary traveller, suddenly roused from sleep, with no helper at hand, might very easily stand a worse chance. than the thief. The fourth illustration (Ecc 4:12) is that of the threefold cord-three strands twisted into one, which, as we all know, English no less than Hebrew, is much more than three times as strong as any one of the separate strands.
But in the fifth and most elaborate illustration (Ecc 4:13-14), we are once more carried back to the East. The slightest acquaintance with Oriental history will teach us how uncertain is the tenure of royal power; how often it has happened that a prisoner has been led from a dungeon to a throne, and a prince suddenly deposed and reduced to impotence and penury. Coheleth supposes such a case. On the one hand, we have a king old, but not venerable, since, long as he has lived, he has not “even yet learned to accept admonition”; he has led a solitary selfish, suspicious life, secluded himself in his harem, surrounded himself with a troop of flattering courtiers and slaves. On the other hand, we have the poor but wise young man, “the affable youth,” who has lived with all sorts and conditions of men, acquainted himself with their habits and wants and desires, and conciliated their regard. His growing popularity alarms the old despot and his minions. He is cast into prison. His wrongs and sufferings endear him to the wronged and suffering people. By a sudden outbreak of popular wrath, by a revolution such as often sweeps through Eastern states, he is set free, and led from the orison to the throne, although he was once so poor that none would do him reverence. This is the picture in the minds eye of the Preacher; and, as he contemplates it, he rises into a kind of prophetic rapture, and cries, “I see-I see all the living who walk under the sun flocking to the youth who stands up in the old kings stead; there is no end to the multitude of the people over whom he ruleth!” (Ecc 4:15).
By these graphic illustrations Coheleth sets forth the superiority of the sociable over the solitary and selfish temper, of union over isolation, of the neighbourly goodwill which leads men to combine for common ends over the jealous rivalry which prompts them to take advantage of each other, and to labour each for himself alone.
But even as he urges this better, happier temper on men occupied with business and public affairs, even as he contemplates its brightest illustration in the youthful prisoner whose winning and sociable qualities have lifted him to a throne, the old mood of melancholy comes back on him; there is the familiar pathetic break in his voice as he concludes (Ecc 4:16), that even this wise youth, who wins all hearts for a time, will soon be forgotten; that “even this,” for all so hopeful as it looks, “is vanity and vexation of spirit.”
A profound gloom rests on the second act of this Drama. It has already taught us that we are helpless in the grip of laws which we had no voice in making; that we often lie at the mercy of men whose mercy is but a caprice; that in our origin and end, in body and spirit, in faculty and prospect, in our lives and pleasures, we are no better than the beasts which perish: that the avocations into which we plunge, and amid which we seek to forget our sad estate, spring from our jealousy the one of the other, and tend to a lonely miserliness without use or charm. The Preachers familiar conclusion -“Be tranquil, be content, enjoy as much as you can”-has grown doubtful to him. He has seen the brightest promise come to nought. In a new and profounder sense, “all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”
But, though passing through a great darkness, he sees, and reflects, some little light. Even when facts seem to contradict it, he holds fast to the conclusion that wisdom is better than folly, and kindness better than selfishness, and to do good, even though you lose by it, better than to do evil and gain by it. His faith wavers only for a moment; it never wholly loosens its hold. And, in the fifth chapter, the light grows, though even here the darkness does not altogether disappear. We are sensible that the twilight in which we stand is not that of evening, which will deepen into night, but that of morning, which will shine more and more until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in the calm heaven of patient tranquil hearts.