Ecclesiastes 11:7

Truly the light [is] sweet,.... Here begins a new subject, as most think; and some here begin the twelfth and last chapter, and not improperly.

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun: Light - of life (Ecclesiastes 7:11; Psalms 49:19). Is sweet. Life is enjoyable, especially to the godly.

It cannot be denied that this present life (which is called light, 33:30 , and which is expressed synecdochically, by seeing the sun, 7:11) is in itself a great blessing, and very desirable; but it is not perpetual nor satisfactory; which is here implied and expressed hi the next verse.

Ecclesiastes 11:7 Truly the light [is] sweet, and a pleasant [thing it is] for the eyes to behold the sun:Ver. 7. Truly the light is sweet.] The light of life, of a lightsome life especially. Any life is sweet; which made the Gibeonites make such a hard shift to live, though it were but to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. "I pray thee let me live," live upon any terms, said Benhadad, in his submissive message to that merciful nonsuch. "If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition," said that καληκαισοφη, that paragon of her time, Queen Esther. Ebedmelech is promised "his life for a prey"; and so is Barak, as a sufficient reward of that good service he had done in reading the roll, for the which he expected some great preferment. The prophet chides him, and tells him he might be glad of his life in those dear years of time, when the arrows of death had so oft come whisking by him, and he had so oft straddled over the grave, as it were, and yet was not fallen into it. To maintain our radical humour, that feeds the lamp of life, is as great a miracle, saith one, as the oil in the widow’ s cruse, that failed her not. To deliver us from so many deaths and dangers as we are daily and hourly subject unto, is a mercy that calls for continual praises to the Preserver of mankind. But more, when men do not only live, but live prosperously, as Nabal did. "Thus," said David to his messengers, "shall ye say to him that liveth," viz., in prosperity; which such a man as Nabal reckons the only life. The Irish use to ask what such a man meant to die? And some good interpreters are of the opinion, that the Preacher in this verse brings in the carnal churl objecting, or replying for himself against the former persuasions to acts of charity. Ah! saith he; but, for all that, to live at the full; to have a goodly inheritance in a fertile soil, in a wholesome air, near to the river, not far from the town; to be free from all troubles and cares that poverty bringeth; to live in a constant sunshine of prosperity, abundance, honour, and delight; to have all that heart can wish or need require - what a heavenly life is this! what a lovely and desirable condition! &c. "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days that he may see good?" saith David. I do, saith one; and I, saith another; and I, a third, &c., as St Augustine frames the answer. It is that which all worldlings covet, and hold it no policy to part with what they have to the poor for uncertainties in another world.

Verse 7. Truly the light is sweet] Life is dear to every man as the light of the sun is to the eye. A man would give all that he has for his life, and it is particularly dear to him when he is in ease and affluence: but let each remember that,

7. Truly the light is sweet] Better, And the light is sweet. The conjunction is simply the usual copulative particle. The word for “sweet” is that used of honey in Judges 14:14; of the honeycomb in Proverbs 24:13. The pessimism of the thinker is passing away under the sunshine of the wiser plan of life in which he al last finds guidance. Life may after all, rightly ordered, be pleasant and comely, not without the “sweetness and light” on which the modern preachers of wisdom lay stress. A remarkable parallel to the form of the maxim (quoted by Ginsburg) is found in Euripides: Μήμʼ ? ἀπολέσηςἄωρονἡδὺγὰρτὸφῶςλεύσσειν, τὰδʼ ? ὑπὸγῆνμὴμʼ ? ἰδεῖνἀναγκάσῃς.“Destroy me not before my youth is ripe:For pleasant sure it is to see the sun;Compel me not to see what lies below.”Iphig. in Aul. 1219. So Theognis contemplating death: κείσομαιὥστελίθοςἄφθογγος, λείψωδʼ ? ἐρατὸνφάοςἠελίοιο.“Then shall I lie, as voiceless as a stone,And see no more the loved light of the sun.”The use of the phrase “seeing the sun” for living, may be noted as essentially Hellenic in its tone. So we have again “seeing the light of the sun” for “living” in Eurip. Hippol. 4.

The preceding exhortation to a life of labor in the sight of God is now addressed especially to the active and the young; and is enforced by another consideration, namely, the transitory character of all that sustains youth.

7. Light is sweet — A cheerful and happy temper is the unfailing reward of a life given to doing good. This verse should not be separated from the preceding.