Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ecclesiastes · About this commentary
The End of the Matter
Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
9 Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs. · WEB
A second voice speaks about the Preacher, vouches for his work, and states the conclusion the investigation could not reach from inside.
The voice changes. For eleven chapters the speaker has said I; from verse 9 he is spoken about — because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge.
And the endorsement is specific. He pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs; he sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth. The searching that produced so much discomfort is certified as honest work, which settles how the findings between the two frames are meant to be read. They are testimony, not error.
Verse 11 describes what such words do: like goads, and like nails well fastened. One drives and one holds — the two things wisdom is for. And the source is single: given from one shepherd.
Verse 12 turns to a reader as my son and delivers the warning every student recognizes: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. It is not an argument against learning but a limit on what learning was ever going to deliver — the same limit the investigation ran into over and over Ecclesiastes 8:17.
Then verse 13 closes the case: fear God and keep his commandments. The command to fear appeared once before, in the middle of the book Ecclesiastes 5:7; here it arrives with commandments attached, which is the only mention of God's commandments in the book.
And the clause that follows is barer in Hebrew than in English, where translators supply a word: this is the whole duty of man reads, more literally, this is the whole of the man. Not merely his obligation — his entirety.
Verse 14 gives the reason, and it answers the delay that let evil harden Ecclesiastes 8:11: God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing.
settled What this mark means