John Gill Commentary Ecclesiastes 7:17

"Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?" — Ecclesiastes 7:17 (ASV)

Be not over much wicked. Not that a man should be wicked at all; but some, observing that wicked men prolong their days in wickedness, are encouraged to go into greater lengths in sin than they have yet done, and give up themselves to all iniquity; and run into excess of not, into the grossest and most scandalous enormities.

Some render it, "do not disturb" or "frighten yourself" ^F1, distress and distract yourself with the business of life, bustling and stirring, restless and uneasy, to get wealth and riches; but be easy and satisfied with what is enjoyed, or comes without so much stir and trouble; this is the original sense of the word.

The meaning seems to be, either do not multiply sin, add unto it, and continue in it; or do not aggravate it, making sins to be greater and more heinous than they are, and a man's case worse than it is, and so sink into despair; and thus it stands opposed to an ostentatious show of righteousness; neither be you foolish; or give up yourself to a profligate life, to go on in a course of sin, which will issue in the ruin of body and soul; or in aggravating it in an excessive manner;

why should you die before your time? bring diseases on your body by a wicked course of living, which will issue in death; or fall into the hands of the civil magistrate, for capital offences, for which sentence of death must pass and be executed, before a man comes to the common term of human life; see (Psalms 55:23) (90:10) ; or, as Mr. Broughton renders it, "before your ordinary time"; not before the appointed time ^F2. The Targum is, ``be the cause of death to your soul;'' or through despair commit suicide.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (evrt la) "ne paveas", Pagninus; "ne te occupes multum, aut distrahas te, sive inquietes", some in Vatablus; so Aben Ezra and Ben Melech.
• F2: "Ante diem", Virgil. Aeneid. 4. prope finem. Vid. Servium in ib. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 4.