Ecclesiastes 7:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ecclesiastes 7:14
In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
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 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecclesiastes 3:22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall b…
Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he mig…
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
Deuteronomy 28:47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
Isaiah 26:11 LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine…
1 Kings 17:17-18 And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 7:11-22
Solomon, in these verses, recommends wisdom to us as the best antidote against those distempers of mind which we are liable to, by reason of the vanity and vexation of spirit that there are in the things of this world. Here are some of the praises and the precepts of wisdom.
I. The praises of wisdom. Many things are here said in its commendation, to engage us to get and retain wisdom. 1. Wisdom is necessary to the right managing and improving of our worldly possessions: Wisdom is good with an inheritance, that is, an inheritance is good for little without wisdom. Though a man have a great estate, though it come easily to him, by descent from his ancestors, if he have not wisdom to use it for…
consider--resumed from Ecc 7:13. "Consider," that is, regard it as "the work of God"; for "God has made (Hebrew, for 'set') this (adversity) also as well as the other (prosperity)." "Adversity" is one of the things which "God has made crooked," and which man cannot "make straight." He ought therefore to be "patient" (Ecc 7:8).
after him--equivalent to "that man may not find anything (to blame) after God" (that is, after "considering God's work," Ecc 7:13). Vulgate and Syriac, "against Him" (compare Ecc 7:10; Rom 3:4).
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 7:14
In the day of prosperity be joyful,.... Or, "in a good day" (q). When things go well in the commonwealth, in a man's family, and with himself, health, peace, and plenty, are enjoyed, a man's circumstances are thriving and flourishing; it becomes him to be thankful to God, freely and cheerfully to enjoy what is bestowed on him, and do good with it: or, "be in good" (r); in good heart, in good spirits, cheerful and lively; or, "enjoy good", as the Vulgate Latin version; for what God gives to men is given them richly to enjoy, to make use of themselves, and be beneficial unto others; so the Targum,
"in the day the Lord does well to thee be thou also in goodness, and do good to all the world;''…
"Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked? "Symmachus translates this passage in this way: "learn the word of God, because no one can correct what He has ruined". That is he supplies from the Holy Scriptures, or from thinking of the elements, to know and understand those things, which are done; but not to ask the causes and reasons why one thing is done in this way, or why it ought to have been done differently from the way in which it has been done. For the sake of this passage, if anyone should ask why God spoke to Moses in this way: "who makes the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind, am I not the Lord God?" [Ex. 4, 11.], and if he should say, why are the blind, the deaf, the mute created in this way, and others similar to these? This passage must be seen in reference to Psalm 17, in which it is said to the Lord: "You will be Holy with the holy man, and with the wicked You will err" [Ps. 17, 26-27.]. And it must be added that the Holy Lord is with him, who is holy; and the wicked are with him, who was previously wicked by his own will. This is similar also to that which is written in Leviticus: "if the wicked came to me I will go to them, wicked in my madness". [Lev. 26-27.] Even this can explain why God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. For just as one and the same quality of the sun melts wax and dries clay, and on account of each one's constitution, both wax melts and clay dries; [Cfr. Lucr. De Rerum Natura VI 962/965; Verg. Ecl. VIII 80.; Hier. Epist. 120,10 -12. CSEL 55, p504,10.] so too the one quality of the portents of God in Egypt softened the heart of those who believed, and hardened that of the incredulous, who just as their hardness and impatient heart, began to store up for themselves anger for the day of anger from those portents, which they didn't believe, though yet they saw them happen.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Prosperity · General references — General references
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 7:13-14
There now follows a proverb of devout submission to the providence of God, connecting itself with the contents of Ecc 7:10 : "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which He hath made crooked! In the good day be of good cheer, and in the day of misfortune observe: God hath also made this equal to that, to the end that man need not experience anything (further) after his death." While ראה, Ecc 1:10; Ecc 7:27, Ecc 7:29, is not different from הנּה, and in Ecc 9:9 has the meaning of "enjoy," here the meaning of contemplative observation, mental seeing, connects itself both times with it. כּי before מי can as little mean quod, as asher, Ecc 6:12, before mi can mean quoniam. "Con…
Enjoying prosperity is beneficial, but such gifts are fleeting. The wise person accepts God’s sovereign hand in everything (cp. Phil 4:11-13).
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 7:14
On a day of goodness [prosperity], be in good spirits. On a day in which you have the ability to do good,35Alternatively, on a day of good fortune be happy and enjoy it. (Metsudas Dovid) be among those who do good.
And on a day of adversity reflect. When evil comes upon the wicked, be among the observers,36Adversity is caused by being sinful. Therefore, examine your deeds and remove any sins by repenting (Sforno). Alternatively, on a day of adversity, reflect and be hopeful for a day of goodness to come. (Likutei Yehudah) as it is stated, “And they will go out and see the corpses of the people, etc.,”37Yeshayahu 66:24. and you will not be among those who are seen, “and they will be a sight…
