Ecclesiastes 7:3. Sorrow is better than laughter— A sorrowful appearance is often better than laughter; for, notwithstanding the sadness of the countenance, the heart may be happy: Desvoeux: who thinks, that not real sorrow, but the appearance of it only, is meant; such a serious countenance as is compatible with inward joy and satisfaction, though absolute grief does not seem to be so.

Ecclesiastes 7:5. The song of fools— Mr. Desvoeux, in a long and learned note, has shewn, that this song of fools refers to the encomiastic songs of strolling bards, who were a kind of extempore singers of stories at banquets, going from place to place, and suiting their performances to the taste of those who paid or entertained them; and praises are so palatable, especially to the great and rich, that it would be a wonder if songs which were to be paid for had not been filled with the encomiums of the purchasers; and I suppose nobody will doubt that such songs were more pleasant to the hearers, and better paid for, than the reprimands of wise men. See Tull. de Oratore, ii. 86, and Pope's Essay on Homer, p. 52.

Ecclesiastes 7:7. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad— Surely oppression shall give lustre to a wise man; and a gift corrupteth the heart. Every sentence contained in the first eight verses of this chapter offers an instance of the wrong judgment of the ignorant; and this is carried on so as to mention the judgments of the wise only, on the several subjects which are instanced; and not those of the ignorant, which are supposed to be sufficiently known. Yet those judgments of the ignorant must be always kept in view, as being the reverse of the sentiments of the wise. Thus by that mutual opposition they afford each other a mutual light. Now the subjects here spoken of are, on the one hand, oppression, or, according to some, calumny; and, on the other hand, gifts or generosity. The opinion of the generality of men concerning those subjects, compared together, is known. They certainly give the preference to a liberal above an oppressive government: and of consequence Solomon's maxim must either express or lay the foundation for some advantage arising even from oppression and tyranny; and what advantage can there possibly be in tyranny, besides its giving the wise man opportunity of exerting his abilities, or trying his virtues, and thereby adding lustre to his wisdom? This is exactly what the word יהולל ieholel, may and does originally mean. Desvoeux.

Ecclesiastes 7:8. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit— Better is he who considereth long, than he whose spirit is high. We have, in this and the preceding verses, the first proof of the third general proposition. Most men, unmindful of futurity, prefer a delicate life to that course whereby a good reputation can be attained; yet a good reputation is preferable by much to the most refined luxury, Ecclesiastes 7:1. A birth-day is every where a day of joy, whereas the day in which any one dies is a day of tears; yet the day of one's birth is the beginning of his troubles, which, to all outward appearance, are at an end the day on which he leaves this world, Ecclesiastes 7:2. Few would choose to go to a house of mourning, if it were in their option to go to a feast; yet the consideration of one's end, which obtrudes itself upon the mind in a house of mourning, is a very profitable one; and what can you get at a feast equivalent to that? The wise knoweth it, and chooseth accordingly. The fool or ignorant behaves likewise agreeably, to his wrong notions. A grave and serious deportment is not so welcome in the world as a merry countenance, which is considered as the surest token of a contented heart. Yet how often is the outward appearance deceitful! Ecclesiastes 7:2-4. To be told of your faults by a discreet man, may be of real service to you; whereas the highest encomiums bestowed on you by the poetical panegyrics of flatterers, are as vain and as insignificant as the noise of burning thorns. Yet how few are there, who do not love adulation? Ecclesiastes 7:5-6. Tyranny and oppression are the worst of evils in the eye of the world, and justly so; yet the effects of oppression, with respect to the wise, is to make wisdom more conspicuous; and bribery, though relished by such as are the objects of it, is the real source of the greatest evil, the corruption of our morals, Ecclesiastes 7:7. Any thing is more perfect (and consequently preferable) when finished, than when it is just begun; yet love of novelty, on the one hand, and aptness to be tired on the other, generally get the better of that very obvious reason. A hasty, assuming, peremptory, decisive man, frequently gets more applause than he who is called tedious, because he takes time to consider; yet how widely do they differ in the eye of reason! Ecclesiastes 7:8.

Ecclesiastes 7:9. To be angry;—for anger— To grieve; for grief, &c.] So our translators have rendered the original word, chap. Ecclesiastes 2:23. See also chap. Ecc 5:17 and Ecclesiastes 11:10; and, thus rendered, it answers Solomon's purpose much better than anger.

Ecclesiastes 7:13. Consider the work of God— Second advice. We should content ourselves with contemplating the works of God, without presuming to judge of them, or to set right that which is not so in our apprehension: because it is in no man's power to alter the appointment of God.

Ecclesiastes 7:14. In the day of prosperity be joyful— In the day of prosperity enjoy it; but in the day of adversity, consider also that God hath made it in opposition to the other, to the end that man should not find out any thing of His ways. The common interpretations of this text are not easily to be reconciled. That which I have given appears the most proper. For, what are we to say was the Almighty's design in ordering this world so, that the most opposite things, as prosperity and adversity, must come each in their turn, and very often without our being able to discover any other cause of either, than the will of the all-dispensing power? Certainly one consequence of this appointment is, to shew that man his folly who takes upon himself to determine concerning the ways of Providence. God's judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. Romans 11:33.
The ways of heav'n are dark and intricate, Puzzled in mazes, and perplex'd with errors: Our understanding traces them in vain, Lost and bewilder'd in the fruitless search; Nor sees with how much art the windings run, Nor where the regular confusion ends.
Now this is the very design which is ascribed to our Maker. If you take the words find after him, for a metaphorical expression, to find any thing after, or behind another, you must go the same way he went before you; you must in a manner trace him, and of course be acquainted with his ways: but, as God would not have us trace his conduct in the government of the universe, he ordered the affairs of this world in such a manner, that through the mutual opposition between the several parts of his appointment, confusion seems to prevail, and the grounds of his determinations are hidden from us. See Desvoeux and Addison.

Ecclesiastes 7:15. In his righteousness—In his wickedness— Notwithstanding his righteousness—Notwithstanding his wickedness. This and the preceding verse contain the third advice. We should receive both prosperity and adversity as coming from the hand of God, without either immoderate joy or unbecoming despondency. The one must be enjoyed, and the other submitted to, from a deep sense of God's wisdom, who has thus ordered the affairs of this world, that we might have sufficient proofs of his goodness and other perfections, and yet that we should not be able to reconcile every thing which happens to us with those very attributes, or fully to discover his ways. This point of doctrine, viz. that the ways of Providence are inscrutable, so directly contradicts the pride of men who pretend that their reason can account for every thing, that it was proper for the author to support it with some proof: but he chose to do it rather by alleging experience, the most unexceptionable of all arguments, than in any other way. And the instance that he alleges is full to the point. The conduct of the Almighty, in the distribution of good and evil in this world, is not to be accounted for, since it does often happen that the sinner is not punished, and that the righteous is not rewarded. Desvoeux.

Ecclesiastes 7:16. Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?— Why shouldest thou be left alone? There is a very remarkable opposition in this and the following verse between the several excesses there mentioned, and a very proper distinction between the consequences which are to be apprehended from them. I cannot say that modern interpreters have entirely destroyed that opposition. Righteous and wicked, wise and foolish, are very proper terms of opposition; but that they may remain so each of them must retain the signification wherein that opposition lies; and that signification cannot be retained, if you represent either righteousness or wickedness, wisdom or folly, as productive of consequences which can never be apprehended from what is commonly understood by those words: For in that case the reader is led to conclude that they are taken in a different sense from that wherein their opposition is visible; and then he is at a loss where to find this opposition. Thus the opposition itself may be at least weakened and obscured by a neglect which seems at first to affect a different part of the sentence only; and I am afraid it is greatly so in our version: Ecclesiastes 7:16. Be not, &c.—Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Ecclesiastes 7:17. Be not, &c.—Why shouldest thou die before thy time? One easily perceives how a premature death is the consequence of an excess of wickedness and folly; but, to make destruction a consequence of an excess or over-affectation of wisdom or righteousness, looks like propounding a riddle. It is true, we are dissuaded from both; yet it is plain from what follows, as well as from the nature of the subject, that they are not to be put upon a level; yet this would be the consequence of Solomon's advice, as worded in the received version; for destruction undoubtedly implies more, and is a worse evil, than death. Therefore, if the over-righteous and over-wise be the man who strives to be foolishly particular, and to distinguish himself from the rest of the world by an ill-judged affectation of righteousness and wisdom, (as his being set in opposition to the wicked and foolish requires that he should,) it is not probable that Solomon represented destruction as the consequence of such a man's behaviour. Now the original word תשׁומם tishomem, might be translated, be made an object of wonder: which signification tallies very well with the case of a man who strives to distinguish himself by running into an over-affectation either of righteousness or wisdom: therefore it is not possible to determine ourselves for the one, rather than for the other, except it be from the farther consideration of some other circumstance. The two warnings annexed by the sacred orator to the directions that he gives, that one should avoid the opposite excesses, must, by the manner in which they are worded, answer each other. Thus it is necessary that something which a man would fain avoid should be mentioned in the first as well as in the second; and this consideration has induced me, with Le Clerc, to prefer the first signification. See Desvoeux, and Le Clerc.

Ecclesiastes 7:18. It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this— The good which thou shouldest take hold of consisteth in this (nay, thou shouldest never withdraw thine hand from it), that he who feareth God shall avoid all these inconveniences. See Desvoeux, p. 314.

Ecclesiastes 7:19. Wisdom strengtheneth the wise— That wisdom (see Ecclesiastes 7:18.) will strengthen the wise, more than ten princes which are in a city. From the 16th to the 20th verse we have the fourth advice. All affectation must be avoided. An over-affectation to be better or wiser than the rest of mankind, can turn to no good account. This affectation of righteousness is real folly: Ecclesiastes 7:16-20. The contrary extreme is still more pernicious, though it is the case of many to fall into it, lest they should be deemed hypocrites. But avowed and excessive wickedness may easily bring a man to a shameful and untimely end, especially if it be accompanied with the foolishness, or heedlessness, which often makes men run headlong into any thing which their passions prompt them to: Ecclesiastes 7:17. Therefore the middle course between any kind of affectation must be taken, and constantly pursued. That middle course consists in the fear of God, whereby a man avoids all excesses, and all inconveniences arising from them: Ecclesiastes 7:18. This is the true wisdom; the true principle of spiritual strength, whereby a man may be better enabled to go through this world, than any town to stand the attacks of her enemies, though ten powerful princes should unite in her favour, and join their forces to defend her bulwarks. This is a support which can never fail: Ecclesiastes 7:19-20.

Ecclesiastes 7:23. All this have I proved by wisdom— All this have I knowingly examined: I said, I will be wise; but wisdom went far from me: Ecclesiastes 7:24. Whatever is so far off, nay, removed to the greatest depth, who shall find it? Desvoeux.

Ecclesiastes 7:25. To seek out wisdom, and the reason of things— To seek out wisdom and reason, and that I might know the wickedness of ignorance, and the foolishness of that which is in the greatest esteem, See chap. Ecclesiastes 2:2. That the advices above given might be the better received, our author declares that he speaks of nothing but what he has examined with all the care and application which human wisdom can suggest. "I resolved, says he, to be thoroughly wise; and though I was stopped far short of the end that I proposed, by the very nature of the inquiries in which I was engaged, yet I went as far as I possibly could: Ecclesiastes 7:23. The farther I advanced, the more I was convinced that wisdom was flying from me. Yet I did not leave off the pursuit of knowledge, and of whatever is the object of human reason. The wickedness or impiety which is the natural consequence of ignorance, the foolishness of every thing which men generally value the most, were also the subjects of my earnest inquiries;" Ecclesiastes 7:24-25. However, his discoveries, abstractedly from what is to be said hereafter of the excellency of wisdom, were confined to a few articles. First, bad women are excessively dangerous, and, on account of the many evils which are brought upon men by their means, may be ranked in the same class with death itself. Their arts and wiles are such, that it is scarcely possible for any one to escape out of their snares, except he is one of those who, by a constant pursuit of true virtue and holiness, have made themselves acceptable to God Almighty. Secondly, though some men may, through that means, be enabled to avoid being led into a wicked course of life; yet there is no one bad woman, but is mistress either of such bodily charms, or of such persuasive arts, as to be able to gain some men to her own ends. How they can, or why they have been by nature so framed as to be able to compass those ends, is a secret as yet undiscovered: but the fact itself is attested by daily experience, and Solomon had more of that experience than any man. Thirdly, Whatever devices men may have either sought out, or been led into, sometimes to their own destruction, God is no ways answerable for them, as he created them upright, and still offers them his grace. This is the only consideration which deserves to be insisted on; and it is such, that we must keep it constantly in view, whenever we are talking of men's mistakes or misdemeanours.

Ecclesiastes 7:26. Whose heart is snares and nets— Who herself is a company of hunters; nay, her heart is nets; her hands are bands. He who is good in the presence of God shall escape from her, &c. The simile is here taken from hunting; and there is a distinction plainly marked in the original, and well observed by the ancients, between the woman herself on the one hand, and her heart and hands on the other; which I have endeavoured to preserve in the version that I have given. See Desvoeux, p. 396.