Ecclesiastes 4

Ec 4:1-16.

1. returned--namely, to the thought set forth

(Ec 3:16;

Job 35:9).

power--MAURER, not so well, "violence."

no comforter--twice said to express continued suffering without any

to give comfort

(Isa 53:7).

2. A profane sentiment if severed from its connection; but just in

its bearing on Solomon's scope. If religion were not taken into account

(Ec 3:17, 19),

to die as soon as possible would be desirable, so as not to suffer or

witness "oppressions"; and still more so, not to be born at all

(Ec 7:1).

Job

(Job 3:12; 21:7),

David

(Ps 73:3,

&c.), Jeremiah

(Jer 12:1),

Habakkuk

(Hab 1:13),

all passed through the same perplexity, until they went into the

sanctuary, and looked beyond the present to the "judgment"

(Ps 73:17;

Hab 2:20; 3:17, 18).

Then they saw the need of delay, before completely punishing the

wicked, to give space for repentance, or else for accumulation of wrath

(Ro 2:15);

and before completely rewarding the godly, to give room for faith and

perseverance in tribulation

(Ps 92:7-12).

Earnests, however, are often even now given, by partial judgments of

the future, to assure us, in spite of difficulties, that God governs

the earth.

3. not seen--nor experienced.

4. right--rather, "prosperous" (see on

Ec 2:21).

Prosperity, which men so much covet, is the very source of provoking

oppression

(Ec 4:1)

and "envy," so far is it from constituting the chief good.

5. Still the

fool (the wicked oppressor) is not to be envied even in

this life, who "folds his hands together" in idleness

(Pr 6:10; 24:33),

living on the means he wrongfully wrests from others; for such a one

eateth his own flesh--that is, is a self-tormentor, never

satisfied, his spirit preying on itself

(Isa 9:20; 49:26).

6. Hebrew; "One open hand (palm) full of quietness, than

both closed hands full of travail." "Quietness" (mental tranquillity

flowing from honest labor), opposed to "eating one's own flesh"

(Ec 4:5),

also opposed to anxious labor to gain

(Ec 4:8;

Pr 15:16, 17; 16:8).

7. A vanity described in

Ec 4:8.

8. not a second--no partner.

child--"son or brother," put for any heir

(De 25:5-10).

eye--

(Ec 1:8).

The miser would not be able to give an account of his infatuation.

9. Two--opposed to "one"

(Ec 4:8).

Ties of union, marriage, friendship, religious communion, are better

than the selfish solitariness of the miser

(Ge 2:18).

reward--Advantage accrues from their efforts being conjoined.

The Talmud says, "A man without a companion is like a left hand

without the right.

10. if they fall--if the one or other fall, as may happen to

both, namely, into any distress of body, mind, or soul.

11. (See on

1Ki 1:1).

The image is taken from man and wife, but applies universally to the

warm sympathy derived from social ties. So Christian ties

(Lu 24:32;

Ac 28:15).

12. one--enemy.

threefold cord--proverbial for a combination of many--for example,

husband, wife, and children

(Pr 11:14);

so Christians

(Lu 10:1;

Col 2:2, 19).

Untwist the cord, and the separate threads are easily "broken."

13. The "threefold cord"

[Ec 4:12]

of social ties suggests the subject of civil government. In this

case too, he concludes that kingly power confers no lasting happiness.

The "wise" child, though a supposed case of Solomon, answers, in the

event foreseen by the Holy Ghost, to Jeroboam, then a poor but valiant

youth, once a "servant" of Solomon, and

(1Ki 11:26-40)

appointed by God through the prophet Ahijah to be heir of the kingdom

of the ten tribes about to be rent from Rehoboam. The "old and foolish

king" answers to Solomon himself, who had lost his wisdom, when, in

defiance of two warnings of God

(1Ki 3:14; 9:2-9),

he forsook God.

will no more be admonished--knows not yet how to take warning (see

Margin) God had by Ahijah already intimated the judgment coming on

Solomon

(1Ki 11:11-13).

14. out of prison--Solomon uses this phrase of a supposed case; for

example, Joseph raised from a dungeon to be lord of Egypt. His words are

at the same time so framed by the Holy Ghost that they answer virtually

to Jeroboam, who fled to escape a "prison" and death from Solomon, to

Shishak of Egypt

(1Ki 11:40).

This unconscious presaging of his own doom, and that of Rehoboam,

constitutes the irony. David's elevation from poverty and exile, under

Saul (which may have been before Solomon's mind), had so far their

counterpart in that of Jeroboam.

whereas . . . becometh poor--rather, "though he (the youth) was born

poor in his kingdom" (in the land where afterwards he was to reign).

15. "I considered all the living," the present generation, in relation

to ("with") the "second youth"

(the "legitimate successor" of the "old king," as opposed to the

"poor youth," the one first spoken of, about to be raised from

poverty to a throne), that is, Rehoboam.

in his stead--the old king's.

16. Notwithstanding their now worshipping the rising sun, the

heir-apparent, I reflected that "there were no bounds, no stability

(2Sa 15:6; 20:1),

no check on the love of innovation, of all that have been before them,"

that is, the past generation; so

also they that come after--that is, the next generation,

shall not rejoice in him--namely, Rehoboam. The parallel, "shall

not rejoice," fixes the sense of "no bounds," no permanent adherence,

though now men rejoice in

him.