to see · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
sun
הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁha.Sha.mesh
H8121
the sun · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
place
מְק֤וֹםme.Kom
H4725
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
judgment
הַמִּשְׁפָּט֙ha.mish.Pat
H4941
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
wickedness
הָרֶ֔שַׁעha.Re.sha'
H7562
a wrong (especially moral) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
place
וּמְק֥וֹםu.me.Kom
H4725
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
righteousness
הַצֶּ֖דֶקha.Tze.dek
H6664
the right (natural · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
iniquity
הָרָֽשַׁעha.Ra.sha'
H7562
a wrong (especially moral) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ecclesiastes 4:1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had…
Ecclesiastes 5:8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he tha…
1 Kings 21:9-21 And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people:
Psalms 58:1-2 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
Psalms 82:2-5 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Psalms 94:21-22 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
Acts 23:3 Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten…
Isaiah 59:14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 3:16–end
Solomon is still showing that every thing in this world, without piety and the fear of God, is vanity. Take away religion, and there is nothing valuable among men, nothing for the sake of which a wise man would think it worth while to live in this world. In these verses he shows that power (than which there is nothing men are more ambitious of) and life itself (than which there is nothing men are more fond, more jealous of) are nothing without the fear of God.
I. Here is the vanity of man as mighty, man in his best estate, man upon the throne, where his authority is submitted to, man upon the judgment-seat, where his wisdom and justice are appealed to, and where, if he be governed by the law…
Here a difficulty is suggested. If God "requires" events to move in their perpetual cycle, why are the wicked allowed to deal unrighteously in the place where injustice ought least of all to be; namely, "the place of judgment" (Jer 12:1)?
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 3:16
And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment,.... Courts of judicature, where judges sit, and, causes are brought before them, and are heard and tried; such as were the Jewish sanhedrim, of which the Midrash and Jarchi interpret it;
that wickedness was there, wicked judges sat there, and wickedness was committed by them; instead of doing justice they perverted it; condemned the righteous, and acquitted the wicked; and oppressed the widow, fatherless, and stranger, whose cause, being just, they should have defended. So the Targum,
"in which lying judges condemn the innocent.''
Well does the wise man say he saw this "under the sun", for there is nothing of this kind above it; nor…
"And, moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there." The structure of the verse is palindromic, like Ecc 1:6; Ecc 2:10; Ecc 4:1. We might also render מקום as the so-called casus absol., so that שׁם ... מק is an emphatic בּמקום (Hitz.), and the construction like Jer 46:5; but the accentuation does not require this (cf. Gen 1:1); and why should it not be at once the object to ראיתי, which in any case it virtually is? These two words שׁמה הרשׁע might be attribut. clauses: where wickedness (prevails), for the old scheme of the attributive clause (the tsfat) is not foreign to the style of this book (vid.,…
The Church Fathers
I saw in the lower regions a pit of punishment awaiting the ungodly but a different place set apart for the godly.
"The shape of this world passes away," not its substance; just as with our bodies too, the shape will be changed. The substance does not perish when "what is sowed as a physical body rises as a spiritual body." But we read nothing of this sort about the fire and the water. Rather we have in the book of Revelation, "And the sea is now no longer," and in the prophets, "And the light of the lamp shall shine for you no more." "We wait for his promises," he says, "in which righteousness dwells." Righteousness dwells in the future age, because then the crown of righteousness will be given to each of the faithful in accord with the measure of their struggle. This is a thing that cannot at all happen in this life, according to the saying of Solomon, "I have seen beneath the sun wickedness in place of judgment and iniquity in place of righteousness and I said in my heart, 'God will judge the righteous and the wicked, and there will be a time for everything.' " And again he says, "I saw the deceit that goes on beneath the sun and the tears of the innocent and that there was no comforter, nor were those deprived of the help of all able to resist their power, and I praised the dead rather than the living."
"Furthermore, I have observed beneath the sun: in the place of justice there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I mused: God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for everything and for every deed, there." The meaning of this is clear but is cloaked by the cloud of interpretation. He says: I sought truth and righteousness under the sun and I saw that even among the benches of judges truth is not valued, but gifts. Or differently: I thought some kind of justice present in this world and either took the pious man on his own merit, or punished the impious for his crimes; and I found the opposite to that which I had been thinking. For I saw a righteous man here suffer much injustice and an impious man made to rule instead of being punished for his crime. But thinking to myself afterwards and considering it carefully I understood that they judge not in respect of God and treating each case one by one, but rather reserve judgement for the future, so that all are judged equally and receive there according to their will and effort. For this is what he says: "and there is a time for everything and for every deed, there", that is, in judgement when God will have begun to judge, then there will be truth, now injustice prevails in the world. Such as when we read in Wisdom, Sirach wrote: "lest you say, what is this or what is that? For all things are sought in their own time" [Eccli. ?].
Dictionary and topics
Injustice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Justice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
This section comments on a variety of topics, including justice, humans and animals, oppression, moderation, companionship, politics, and worship.
3:16 courtroom (literally the place of justice): In Israel, local court proceedings were held at the city gates, where the city’s elders sat to hear and adjudicate legal matters (e.g., see Ruth 4:1-12).
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 3:16
In the place of justice, etc. I saw with the Holy Spirit, the place of the Chamber of Hewn Stone in Yerusholayim, which was, “full of justice,”34Yeshayahu 1:21. there they judge wickedly, as it is stated, “Her leaders judge for bribes,”35Michah 3:11. and I saw their punishment.
And in the place of righteousness. The middle gate, which was the place where laws were established.
There was wickedness. There sat Sarsachim, the chief captain, Nergal Saretzer, the chief officer, and Nevuchadnetzar and his armies,36See Yirmiyahu 39:3. and they judged Yisroel with harsh tortures and death sentences.
There was wickedness. The accent mark is above [i.e., before the last syllable], indicating that i…
