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Biblion Bible Commentary

Read the introduction to Ecclesiastes · About this commentary

Consider the Work of God

Ecclesiastes 7:7-14

7 Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding. · WEB

The crooked thing that could not be straightened in chapter 1 is here said to have been made crooked, and the alternation of good days and bad is given a purpose.

Verse 8 states two preferences that both run against instinct: better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Endings are where a thing can be assessed; beginnings are where it is only promised.

Verse 10 forbids a specific sentence, and it is the one every generation says: don't say, Why were the former days better than these? The reason given is not that the past was worse but that the question is badly formed — you do not ask wisely about this. Chapter 1 has already explained why the former days look better, and the explanation was that the record is gone Ecclesiastes 1:11.

Verses 11 and 12 compare wisdom to money and grant the comparison. Both are a defense. Then the difference: wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. Money shields; wisdom keeps alive.

Verse 13 is the turn. Who can make that straight which he has made crooked? The first chapter said the crooked cannot be straightened and left the agent unnamed Ecclesiastes 1:15. Here the agent is named, and it is God. What was a limit observed becomes a limit assigned — the same fact, moved from the category of accident into the category of design.

And verse 14 draws the practical consequence: in the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider. Two different responses, each fitted to its day, and neither available for both.

The stated purpose of the alternation is the clause readers usually skip: God has set them side by side, to the end that man should not find out anything after him. The days are mixed so that the pattern cannot be read — the same withholding as chapter 3 Ecclesiastes 3:11.

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