Ecclesiastes 7:1-14. Solomon uses the word “better” seven times in this chapter. What cold heart is there which does not beat with joy on that day? Author and Time of Writing. Then fidelity. Barnabas’s “good name” was a passport to Saul of Tarsus among the Churches. Bible Commentary Ecclesiastes 7:1-15. So in the case of the woman who received an everlasting name from Jesus Christ, in reward for her precious ointment (Isaiah 56:5; Mark 14:3-9). “Is this to die?” said one. And when we come to die, with our souls awake to our real condition, conscious that we have been upheld to the last moment, a vigorous faith may enable the Christian go say, with the apostle, in the near prospect of death, “I have fought the good fight,” etc. Next » Chapter 8. Our Price: $12.99 Save: $27.00 (68%) Buy Now. Precious ointment; which was very fragrant, and acceptable, and useful, and of great price, especially in those countries. Login or Create an Account. They get some sudden windfall, they prosper in business, or perhaps there are long months of prosperity in which all goes well with them, and God is giving them the desires of their heart. To treat them this way is to err in their application. The latter part of the verse has a logical connexion with the former. Ask any soldier which he likes best, the first shot in the battle or the sound which means “Cease firing, for the victory is won.” When we were born we set out on our journey; but when we die we end our weary march in the Father’s house above. Why should this be called 'better' than going to the house of feasting? The first foundation quality of manliness is truth-speaking. 2. They are not laws of invariable truth. The royal patient has passed before us in every variety of mood, from the sleepy collapse of one who has eaten the fabled lotus, up to the frantic consciousness of a Hercules tearing his limbs as he tries to rend off his robe of fiery poison. Book List. Add to my study list. 1. Terpsichore, sive l. 5. c. 4. Life is a period of probation, the successful termination of which is better than its commencement. Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary Ecclesiastes. It will do more good to go to a funeral than to a feast. But as we draw nearer to the goal, our confidence increases; the decline of a Christian’s life is ordinarily marked by greater stability of mind--by a less wavering faith. Ecclesiastes 7 is the seventh chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Sorrow. Study This × Bible Gateway Plus. Above him. On this side death there are bitter herbs for medicine, suitable to imperfect and diseased conditions of life; but on the other side are the fruits of paradise, not to correct the tendencies of an evil nature, but to feed the soul, to nourish it up unto everlasting blessedness. Rashi 's Commentary: Show Hide. I heard this morning of a dear friend who had fallen asleep. In what latitude this doctrine is to be understood. 3. We pass over the years of childhood and youth, during which the human being is acquiring varied knowledge, to the period when character is more fully developed. He enumerates the prescriptions which he tried, and mentions their results. 2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, The day of his death settles him among better company than the day of his birth did (Hebrews 12:22). The sufferings of Jesus and the influences of the Spirit indicate a cost which no arithmetic can compute. The first clause has no internal connection whatever with the second: the means adopted to point out such a connection have been plainly artificial and farfetched. Nor is this all, for we shall serve God in glory. Death is the last enemy, and turns out to be the death of every enemy. But there is no man that ever hurt his son by giving him a good name--a name that is a perpetual honour; a name such that when it is pronounced it makes every one turn round and say, “Ah, that is his son,” and smile upon him. “Well, then,” said he, “it is worth while to live even to enjoy the bliss of dying.” The holy calm of some and the transport of others prove that better is the day of death in their case than the day of birth, or all their days on earth. But imagine him spared by the goodness of God until he is brought to repentance. ointment. God created man good, Ecclesiastes 7:29. 1. (12.) Already old Jewish … While Solomon preferred the day of death, he might still (with Luther here) have regarded birth as a good thing, and as having its place in the creation of God. And the day of death ... birth. Paul’s “good name” was all that was needed to secure large donations for the poor saints at Jerusalem. 6. The “name” given by God to His child (Revelation 3:1)2) is for ever and in all l)ands. The book contains philosophical speeches by a character called '(the) Qoheleth' (="the Teacher"), composed probably between 5th to 2nd century BCE. There are some diseases which, in all probability, some of us never will get quite rid of till the last Physician comes, and He will settle the matter. טּוב occurs oftener in this chapter than in any other chapter of the Old Testament. He now comes to the cure. Peshitta, Targum, and Talmud attribute the authorship of the book to King Solomon. It requires the utmost circumspection and watchfulness--the strictest examination of our motives and feelings, to preserve the evidences of our Christian character bright and unclouded. So our phrase to be in good odour. We may take up that good name in three parts. It has been very sweet to sit at the Lord’s table, and have fellowship with Jesus in the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine; but sweeter far will it be to commune with Him in the paradise above, and that we shall do on the day of our death. The better country which the Christian seeks is a heavenly country--it is an incorruptible, undefiled, unfading inheritance, not to be realized in mortal flesh not to be reached until the spirit, freed from the bonds of earth, ascends to God who gave it. 1:2, 18; 2:11, 17, 23; 4:1-2; 5:15-16). Ecclesiastes 7:1 Parallel Verses [⇓ See commentary ⇓] Ecclesiastes 7:1, NIV: "A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth." Some such appear in every age and generation in European history--some far back over the high summits of the thousands of years that have rolled between them and us. Blatt, 1864, No. It is more costly. so happy that he cannot die too soon! A good name is better than a good ointment, And the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. He will spend his eternity in the other world better than he did his time in this world, how well soever he spent it (Revelation 4:8). This is true of the name of Christ, whose name Messiah which signifies anointed, is as ointment poured forth, and is preferable to it, Song of Solomon 1:3; so his other names, Jesus a Saviour; Jehovah, our righteousness; Immanuel, God with us; are exceeding precious to those who know the worth of him, and see their need of righteousness and salvation by him; his person, and the knowledge of him; his Gospel, and the fame and report it gives of him; infinitely exceed the most precious and fragrant ointment; see 2 Corinthians 2:14. Bible Commentary Ecclesiastes 12:1-7. Retail: $49.99. We might notice that our life seems to be filled with difficult things – difficult people, difficult situations, problems that are over our head, etc. Updated: Fri, 11/25/2016 - 07:46 By admin. For though the name of the wicked shall rot, his lamp shall be put out in obscurity, and leave a vile snuff behind it, yet "the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance"; they shall leave their names for a blessing. "[8] "The warning here is for those who wanted only the parties and the good times, and who studiously avoided all sad and sorrowful occasions. If it is found, not that the man is obsequious to the sects, but that he is God-fearing in the better sense of the term fear, that he is really a religious-minded man, that he is pure in his moral habits, though he is deficient in his enterprise and endeavours, so that his inspiration is not calculation, so that the influence that is working in him is the influence of the eternal and invisible; if all these qualities in him have been known and tested; if it is found that his sincerity is not the rash sincerity of inexperience, and that it is not the impulse of an untutored and untrained generosity; if it is found that these qualities implanted in him have been built upon, that they have increased, that they have had the impact of storms upon them, and that they have stood; if there have been inducements and temptations to abandon truth and justice, and sincerity and fidelity, but the man has been mightier than the temptation or the inducement--then he has built a name, at least, which is a tower of strength; and men say, “There is a man for you.” Now, how does a man’s name affect his prosperity? Sayings of similar import we find also in heathen writers, with this difference, however, that they possessed no key to such sufferings, that they were unable to reconcile them with the divine righteousness and love, and that they were shut out from a knowledge of, and approach to, those sources of consolation which are revealed in the Holy Scriptures. And the day of death than the day of one's birth. 1. Seeing this life is so full of vanity, and vexation, and misery, it is a more desirable thing for a man to go out of it, than to come into it; which is the more considerable note, because it is contrary to the opinion and practice of almost all mankind, to celebrate their own or children’s birth-days with solemn feasts and rejoicings, and their deaths with all expressions of sorrow. deut. Their day of death also teaches more instructive lessons than the day of their birth. Chapter 2. The present life is to the Christian a period of imperfect enjoyment. and the day of [his] death, etc. (C. H. But should both combine,--the worth and the appreciation of worth,--the resulting good name is better than precious ointment. Darkness, discouragement, uncertainty and despair were the results. The same nature which God gave us when we were regenerated--the spiritual nature--is that which will enjoy the heavenly state. Yea, than great riches. He is in an essentially different position to that in which he was on the day of his birth, not only by the enlargement of his faculties, and the exercise of his affections, but they are directed to nobler objects; he knows and loves the character of God, he aspires after the enjoyment of Him, looks forward to enduring happiness with Him after the toils and sufferings of earthly existence, and his faith becomes “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” On the day of his birth he was the mere creature of flesh and sense, but now he is born of the Spirit, and he lives by faith. Secondly, It comforts the conscience, and exhilarates the heart; cheers up the mind amidst all discouragements, and fatteth the bones, [Proverbs 15:30] doing a man good, like a medicine. First, there will be no change of nature. Such emotions are all over when the day of death comes, for glory dawns upon us with its satisfaction and intense content. (A. M. The proposition which is here of primary importance is formed by the words: "and the day of death is better than the day of one's birth." ", Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Chapter 5. Ecclesiastes 8 – The Life Worth Living – Mysteries, Riddles, Enigmas and Our God. {See Trapp on "Proverbs 22:1 "} The initial letter (a) of the Hebrew word for "good" here is larger than ordinary, to show the more than ordinary … And […] Ecclesiastes 6 Commentary … 1. From the fundamental passage it is evident that good oil is considered here as something very costly and precious. Life is made up of losses, but death loses losses. II. Compare especially Jeremiah 20:18—"Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see suffering and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame? Man, after all his labour, is no nearer finding rest than the sun, the wind, or the current of the river. The day of the saint’s death carries him into a better world than the day of his birth did. As to the parties, those who have so lived as to obtain the good name. A long life of walking with God proved that he was one of God’s people, and we know that for such there remains joy without temptation, without sorrow, without end, for ever and ever.” Oh, then, as much as certainty is better than uncertainty, the day of the saint’s death is better than the day of his birth. Then sincerity. The dying-day is not always so frightful as it looks; it may be a good day too. l. 2. c. 25. of some Heathenish and barbarous people in Thrace, and who inhabited Mount Caucasus, that they mourned at the birth of their children, reckoning up the calamities they are entering into, and rejoiced at the death of their friends, being delivered from their troubles: but this is to be understood of the persons themselves that are born and die; not of all mankind, unless as abstracted from the consideration of a future state, and so it is more happy to be freed from trouble than to enter into it; nor of wicked men, it would have been better indeed if they had never been born, or had died as soon as born, that their damnation might not have been aggravated by the multitude of their sins; but after all, to die cannot be best for them, since at death they are cast into hell, into everlasting fire, and endless punishment: this is only true of good men, that have a good name living and dying; have a good work of grace upon them, and so are meet for heaven; the righteousness of Christ on them, and so have a title to it; they are such who have hope in their death, and die in faith and in the Lord: their death is better than their birth; at their birth they come into the world under the imputation and guilt of sin, with a corrupt nature; are defiled with sin, and under the power of it, liable in themselves to condemnation and death for it: at the time of their death they go out justified from sin through the righteousness of Christ, all being expiated by his sacrifice, and pardoned for his sake; they are washed from the faith of sin by the blood of Christ, and are delivered from the power and being of it by the Spirit and grace of God; and are secured from condemnation and the second death: at their coming into the world they are liable to sin yet more and more; at their going out they are wholly freed from it; at the time of their birth they are born to trouble, and are all their days exercised with it, incident to various diseases of the body, have many troubles in the world, and from the men of it; many conflicts with a body of sin and death, and harassed with the temptations of Satan; but at death they are delivered from all these, enter into perfect peace and unspeakable joy; rest from all their labours and toils, and enjoy uninterrupted communion with God, Father, Son, and Spirit, angels, and glorified saints. The word good, better, occurs in this chapter oftener than in any chapter of the Old Testament. Paul declared that, "It is better to depart and be with Christ (Philippians 1:21-23), Also; "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalms 116:15). Second Element. View More Titles. At first glance Ecclesiastes 7:1 seems strange and even contra-logical. Genial. Likewise to have a name written in heaven, in the Lamb's book of life, and to have one's name confessed by Christ hereafter before his Father and his holy angels; or even a good name among men, a name for a truly godly gracious person; for love to Christ, zeal for his cause, and faithfulness to his truths and ordinances; such as the woman got, better than the box of ointment poured on Christ's head; and which the brother had, whose praise in the Gospel was throughout the churches; and as Demetrius, who had good report of all then, and of the truth itself, Matthew 26:13, 3 John 1:12. 2. This paragraph deals with that second clause of Ecclesiastes 7:1. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 7:1-6 Reputation for piety and honesty is more desirable than all the wealth and pleasure in this world. 1. Then, a good name is a legacy. It suffuses around about one an atmosphere, not very powerful, but yet very advantageous, in the form of kind feelings and wishes. 2. Ver. Sign In | Sign Up × Remember God in youth before old age and death . anshē hashshem, Genesis 6:4; veli - shem, nameless, Job 30:8. In these, and the like observations, this Chapter abounds. name . "[6] Every funeral is a prophecy of one's own death and burial. revelation of religion, except in such references as Matthew 26:24, it is absolutely impossible without apostasy from it, or without rejection of its fundamental meaning. With a UCG.org account you will be able to save items to read and study later! 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