Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ecclesiastes · About this commentary
Do Not Be Overly Righteous
Ecclesiastes 7:15-22
15 All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing. · WEB
A warning against excessive righteousness is fenced on both sides, and what it targets is righteousness used as a technique.
Verse 15 states the evidence: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing. Both halves are observed rather than argued, and together they break the rule that behavior predicts outcome.
Then verse 16, which is the hardest sentence in the chapter: don't be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
Read alone it sounds like a recommendation of moderate sin, and the next verse blocks that reading before it can be made: don't be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time? The warning has a wall on each side, and no space is left in the middle for calculated wrongdoing.
What the pair addresses, taken with verse 15, is righteousness treated as leverage. The man in view is scrupulous in order to secure an outcome, and verse 15 has just shown him a righteous man dying anyway. The counsel is against the posture, not against obedience.
Verse 18 gives the resolution, and it is a person rather than a formula: he who fears God will come out of them all. Not a middle setting between two extremes, but a different orientation altogether.
And verse 20 removes the ground for the pose entirely: surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn't sin. Nobody qualifies for the strategy.
Verses 21 and 22 then apply it where it stings. Don't listen for what is said about you, lest you hear your servant curse you — because your own heart knows that you yourself have likewise cursed others.
held with reason What this mark means