John Gill Commentary Ecclesiastes 9

For all this I considered in my heart
What goes before, in the latter end of the preceding chapter, concerning the various providences of God, thedifficulty of finding out the reasons of them, and the fruitlessness of attempting it; and also what follows,the work of Providence: Solomon gave his mind unto, attended it with great application, and strictlyconsidered and examined it, in order to find it out, but could not; and if he could not, no other man could.And he had a good intention in all; his views were, even to declare all this ;
for the end of search and inquiry should be, to make known what is found for the good of others, (Job 5:27); and as the wise man had done before, (Ecclesiastes 7:25–29) ; or "to purge", or "purify", as the word^F16 signifies; to make dark providences clear, and consistent with the perfections and promises ofGod; to free and vindicate them from all charges of unrighteousness and partiality, and to set them in aclear light to others: now though he failed in his attempt, yet having made some discoveries, he impartedthem, as follows:

and the observations he made were, that the righteous, and the wise, and theirworks, [are] in the hand
of God ;
that those who are truly "righteous" in the sight of God; are so, in an evangelical sense, made so by theobedience of Christ; and who believe in him for righteousness, and live soberly, righteously, and godly: andwho are "wise", not for the things of this world but another, who are wise unto salvation; and are concernedfor the truth of grace, as well as an outward profession, and walk wisely in the world; these, their persons,are under the special care of divine Providence; they receive from the hand of God what is needful and properfor them, and they are preserved and protected by him, (1 Timothy 4:8 1 Timothy 4:10) ; and their "works",or affairs; all events relating to them, are all appointed, ordered, and directed by the hand of God, and allfor their good.

In a more evangelic sense, their persons are in the hands of God, Father, Son, and Spirit; inthe hands of the Father of Christ, being engraven there: he looks at them, and upon them; with delight andpleasure, and never forgets them; he has a high and honourable esteem of them, they are a crown of glory, anda royal diadem in his hand; he directs and guides them, holds them, and upholds them with his right hand; andkeeps them, by his power, through faith unto salvation, (John 10:29) (Isaiah 49:16) (62:3) (41:10) (Psalms 73:23Psalms 73:24) (1 Peter 1:5) . They are in the hands of Christ; put there by his Father, asthe effect of his love, care, and wisdom; where they are in his possession, the objects of his delight; andare under his guidance and direction, his care and protection, (Deuteronomy 33:3) (Song of Solomon 8:6) (Psalms 95:7) (Revelation 2:1) (John 10:28) . And they are in the hands of the Spirit, who begins andcarries on his own work in them; leads them to Christ, and into all truth, and guides them safe to glory, (John 16:8John 16:13John 16:14) (Psalms 143:10) . And so their "works" also are in the hands of God; thework of grace upon the soul is in the hand of the Spirit, to carry it on and finish it; good works done bythem are done by the assistance of divine grace, the strength of Christ, and the aid of the blessed Spirit;are received and accepted with God through Christ; and will not be forgotten, but are retained, and will beremembered another day; see (Ecclesiastes 9:7) (Hebrews 6:10) (Revelation 14:13) ;

no man knows either love or hatred [by] all [that is] before them ;
no man knows his own love and hatred, his passions are so fickle and inconstant; what he loves now, hepresently hates, as may be seen in the instances of Ammon, Ahasuerus, and others: or he knows not that whathe loves and hates shall befall him, all depending on divine Providence; or he does not know the love andhatred of others, who are his friends or his foes, there is such deceitfulness in men: or rather, he does notknow the love and hatred of God, with respect to himself or others, by the outward conduct of Providence;since the same things happen to one as to another; as health and strength, wealth and riches, honour andfame, wisdom and learning, long life, and the like: good men may know that they are loved of God, by his lovebeing shed abroad in them, by the blessings of grace bestowed on them, and the witnessings of the Spirit tothem; and know that sin is abominable to God, and wicked men are hated by him; and living and dying in sin,will be eternally damned; but who is an elect person, and who a reprobate, is not to be known by the outwardestate of men, as to the things of life.

Some render it, "even love and hatred" ^F17 , inconnection with the preceding clause; that is, these are in the hands of God also; his love to his people ispurely sovereign, according to his own will; not through any motives in them, as their love, loveliness, orgood works; and his hatred of others, or the punishment of them for sin, and appointment of them to it; forthe same is also as he pleases; see (Romans 9:11–22) ; or the love and hatred of men; for God has thehearts and passions of all men in his hand, and at his command, and can raise or restrain them at hispleasure, (Proverbs 21:1) ; the love and hatred of good men; he works in them love to himself and alldivine things, and hatred of that which is evil; and also of bad men, he can make them love his people, andhe can restrain their wrath when he pleases, (Proverbs 16:7) (Psalms 76:10) ;

and then the last clause is rendered, "no man knows all [that is] before them" ^F18 ; either before Elohim, the three divinePersons, to whom all things are manifest, or that were before decreed, as Aben Ezra; the purposes and decreesof God, which are the secret and deep things of God, and cannot be known but by his promises or providences:or man is so short sighted, that he cannot discern the things that are plain and manifest before him; andmuch less things future, that are yet to come. But the words, according to the accents, may be betterrendered, as by Munster, "neither love nor hatred man knows"; whether the love professed to him is sincere,and what secret hatred is bore to him: "but all things are before him"; Elohim, the three divine Persons.

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: (rwbl) "purgare", Gejerus, Gouge.
• F17: (hanv Mg hbha Mg) "etiam amor, etiam odium", i.e. "in manu Dei", De Dieu, Gouge, Gussetius, p. 150, 873.
• F18: (Mhynpl lkh Mdah edwy Nya) "non norunt homines quicquam corum quaea ante se sunt", De Dieu; "non est homo quisquam qui cognoscat omnes qui sunt coram ipsi", Gussetius, p. 873.

All [things come] alike to all
That is, all outward things in this life, good and bad men share in alike; which proves that neither love nor hatred can be known by them: so the emperor Mark Antonine, in speaking of life and death, of honour and dishonour, of pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, says ^F19 , all these things happen alike to good men and bad men;

[there is] one event to the righteous and to the wicked ;
the same prosperous ones happen to one as to another, as riches, honour, health, wisdom and learning, fame and reputation: if Abraham was rich in cattle, gold, and silver, so was Nabal, and the rich fool in the Gospel; if Joseph was advanced to great dignity in Pharaoh's court, so was Haman in the court of Ahasuerus; if Caleb was as hearty and strong at fourscore and five as ever, it is true of many wicked men, that there are no bands in their death, and their strength is firm to the last; if Moses, Solomon, and Daniel, were wise men, and of great learning, so were the idolatrous Egyptians, and so are many God is not pleased to call by his grace; if Demetrius had a good report of all men, so had the false prophets of old: and the same adverse things happen to one as to another as the instances of Job, Lazarus, and the good figs, the Jews carried into captivity, show; of whom the Midrash, and Jarchi from that, interpret this and the following clauses: "to the righteous and to the wicked": to Noah the righteous, and to Pharaoh, not Necho, as Jarchi, but he whose daughter Solomon married, who, the Jews say, were both lame;

to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean ;
who are "good", not naturally, and in and of themselves, but by the grace of God; and who are "clean", not by nature, nor by their own power, but through the clean water of divine grace being sprinkled on them, and through the blood and righteousness of Christ applied to them; and who are "unclean", through the corruption of nature, and the pollution of actual sins, they live in. Some understand this of a ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness. The above Jews apply these characters to Moses, who was good; to Aaron, who was clean; and to the spies, who were unclean; and the same thing happened to them all, exclusion from the land of Canaan;

to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not :
that serves and worships the Lord, and who does not, one branch of service and worship being put for all; and whether they offer themselves, their contrite hearts and spiritual sacrifices, or not. The Jews exemplify this Josiah, who sacrificed to the Lord; and in Ahab, who made sacrifice to cease; and both were slain with arrows;

as [is] the good, so [is] the sinner ;
alike in their outward condition and circumstances, whether as to prosperity or adversity;

[and] he that sweareth, as [he] that feareth an oath ;
the common swearer, or he that is perjured, and has no reverence of God, nor regard to truth, nor any concern to make good his oath; and he that is cautious about taking one does it with awe and reverence of the divine Being, and is careful of keeping, it, even to his own hurt. The Jews stance in Zedekiah and Samson; the former broke his oath with the king of Babylon, and the latter was a religious observer of an oath; and yet both had their eyes put out; but it does not appear that Samson ever took an oath: the opposition in the text seems to be between one that is ready to take an oath on every occasion, without considering the solemnity of one, and without due care of what he swore to; and one that is cautious about taking an oath, and chooses to be excused from taking one, on any account, could he be excused; preferring such advice as is given, (Matthew 5:34) (James 5:12) , "swear not at all"; the counsel about swearing, which Isocrates ^F20 gives, seems worthy of notice;

``take an oath required on two accounts; either to purge yourself from a foul crime charged with, or to save friends in danger, and deliver them out of it; but on account of money (or goods) swear not by any deity, no, not even if you can take an oath safely; for by some you will be thought to be perjured, and by others to be covetous.''

The word in Hebrew for swearing is always passive, because a man should not swear, unless obliged; and the same form of language is used by Latin writers ^F21 ; and the Hebrew word for it comes from a root which signifies "seven", in allusion, as some think, to seven witnesses required to an oath; the Arabians, when they swore, anointed "seven" stones with blood; and, while anointing them, called on their deities ^F23 ; see (Genesis 21:30) . It may be observed, that all men are here divided into good and bad; this has been the distinction from the beginning, and continues, and ever will.

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: De scipso, l. 2. c. 11.
• F20: Paraenes Demonic. p. 10.
• F21: "Juratus sum", Plauti Corculio, Act. 3. v. 88. "Fui juratus", ib. Acts 4. Sc. 4. v. 10. "Non tu juratus mihi es? juratus sum", ib. Rudens, Act. 5. Sc. 3. v. 16, 17.
• F23: Herodot. Thalia, sive l. 3. c. 8.

This [is] an evil among all [things] that are done under the sun, that [there is] one event to all
A very great evil, a very sore one, the worst of evils. Not an evil, as the providence of God is concerned with it, who does no evil; nor is there any unrighteousness in him; he is righteous in all his ways: but this is an evil, and distressing thing, to the minds of good men; see (Psalms 73:2Psalms 73:12–14) (Jeremiah 12:1) ; and is what bad men make an ill use of, to harden themselves in sin, and to despise religion as an unprofitable thing, (Job 21:14Job 21:15) ;

yes, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil :
they are naturally full of evil, of all unrighteousness and wickedness, what comes out of them show it; and because the same things happen to good and bad men, and the wicked pass with impunity, and are outwardly happy as others, or more so, their hearts are fully set in them to do evil, (Ecclesiastes 8:11) ;

and madness is in their heart while they live ;
or "madnesses" ^F24 : every sin is madness; for who but a madman would stretch out his hand against God, and strengthen himself against the Almighty, and run upon him? who but a madman would rush into sin in the manner he does, and expose himself to dangers and death, even eternal death? Wicked men are mad upon their lusts, and mad against the saints, and all that is good; this insanity is in their hearts, and shows itself in their lives, and continues with them as long as they live, unless called by grace;

and after that [they go] to the dead ;
after all the madness of their lives, they die and go into the state of the dead, and are among which refers not so much to the interment of bodies in the grave, as the company with which their separate spirits are; they go not to the righteous dead, but to the wicked; see (Proverbs 2:18) (9:18) ; so Alshech; they go to the dead; not to the righteous, who, in their death, or when dead are called living, but, as Jarchi observes, at their end they go down to hell. The Targum is,

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: twllwh ) "insaniae", Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius, Amama, Gejerus, Rambachius; "omnis insania", Junius & Tremellius.

For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope

That is, who is among the living, is one of them, and, as long as he is, there is hope, if his circumstances are mean, and he is poor and afflicted, that it may be better with him in time; see (Job 14:7);

or of his being a good man, though now wicked; of his being called and converted, as some are at the eleventh hour, even on a death bed; and especially there is a hope of men, if they are under the means of grace, seeing persons have been made partakers of the grace of God after long waiting.

There is here a "Keri" and a "Cetib", a marginal reading and a textual writing; the former reads, "that is joined", the latter, "that is chosen"; our version follows the marginal reading, as do the Targum, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions: some, following the latter, render the words, "who is to be chosen" ^F25 , or preferred, a living, or a dead man? not a dead but a living man: "to all the living there is hope"; of their being better; and, as Jarchi observes, there is hope, while alive, even though he is a wicked man joined to the wicked; yea, there is hope of the wicked, that he may be good before he dies;

for a living dog is better than a dead lion ;

a proverbial speech, showing that life is to be preferred to death; and that a mean, abject, and contemptible person, living, who for his despicable condition may be compared to a dog, is to be preferred to the most generous man, or to the greatest potentate, dead; since the one may possibly be useful in some respects or another, the other cannot: though a living sinner, who is like to a dog for his uncleanness and vileness, is not better than a dead saint or righteous man, comparable to a lion, who has hope in his death, and dies in the Lord.

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (rxby rsa ym) "quisquis eligatur", Montanus, so Gejerus.

For the living know that they shall die
Death is certain, it is the demerit of sin, the appointment of God and the time of it is fixed; it may be known that it will be, from the word of God that assures it, from all experience which confirms it, and from the decline of nature, and the seeds of death in men. This "the living" know that live corporeally, even the wicked themselves, though they put the evil day far from them; and so good men, that live spiritually, being quickened by the Spirit and grace of God, and live a life of faith and holiness; they know they shall die, though Christ died for them, and has abolished death, as a punishment and a curse, and took away its sting, and made it a blessing; wherefore it is desirable to them, as being for their good: but there are some things about death they ordinarily know not; they do not know the time of their death; nor the place where they shall die; nor of what death they shall die; nor in what circumstances, both outward and inward.

Of these the Targum understands the passage, ``for the righteous know that if they sin, they shall be reckoned as dead men in the world to come, therefore they keep their ways, and sin not; but if they sin, they return by repentance;''

but the dead know not anything ;
this is not to be understood of their separate spirits, and of the things of the other world; for the righteous dead know much, their knowledge is greatly increased; they know, as they are known; they know much of God in Christ, of his perfections, purposes, covenant, grace, and love; they know much of Christ, of his person, offices, and glory, and see him as he is; they know much of the Gospel, and the mysteries of it; and of angels, and the spirits of just men, they now converse with; and of the glories and happiness of the heavenly state; even they know abundantly more than they did in this life:

and the wicked dead, in their separate spirits, know there is a God that judgeth; that their souls are immortal; that there is a future state; indeed they know and feel the torments of hell, the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched: but this is to be interpreted of their bodily senses now extinct, and of worldly things they have now nothing to do with; they know not any thing that is done in this world, nor how it fares with their children and friends they have left behind them; see (Job 14:21) (Isaiah 63:16) ; nor therefore are they to be prayed unto, and used as mediators with God.

The Targum is, ``and sinners know not any good, so that they do not make their works good while they live; and they know not any good in the world to come;''

neither have they any more a reward ;
not but that there will be rewards in a future state, in which everyone shall have his own reward; there will be a reward for the righteous; they will receive the reward of the inheritance, though it will be, not of debt, but of grace; and particularly in the millennium state, (Psalms 58:11) (Colossians 3:24) (Revelation 22:12) (11:18) ; and every transgression of the wicked will receive a just recompence of reward; to whom the reward of their hands will be given them, (Hebrews 2:2) (Isaiah 3:11) ; but the sense is, that after death there will be no enjoyment of a man's labours; he will not have the use, profit, and advantage of them, but his heirs that succeed him, (Ecclesiastes 4:9) (Ecclesiastes 2:18Ecclesiastes 2:19Ecclesiastes 2:21Ecclesiastes 2:22) ;

for the memory of them is forgotten ;
not the memory of the righteous with God, for whom a book of remembrance is written, and whose names are written in heaven; these are had in everlasting remembrance, and their memory blessed: but the memory of wicked men; who, though they take pains to perpetuate their names, which they give to their lands, yet the Lord causes their memory to cease, and they are forgotten in the place where they lived; not only among the righteous, as the Targum, but among others, (Isaiah 26:14) (Ecclesiastes 8:10) ; even among those that enjoy the fruit of their labour; they will scarce think of them any more, or, however, in a little time they will be quite forgotten by them.