Ecclesiastes 7:14

In the day of prosperity be joyful,.... Or, "in a good day" (q).

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.

Be joyful; enjoy God’ s favours with cheerfulness and thankfulness. Consider, to wit, God’ s work, which is easily understood out of the foregoing verse. Consider that it is God’ s hand, and therefore submit to it; humble thyself under his hand, be sensible of it, and duly affected with it; consider also why God sends it, for what sins, and with what design. This is a proper season for serious consideration, whereas prosperity relaxeth the mind, and calls it forth to outward things. But this clause may be, and is by some, rendered thus, and look for a day of adversity. In prosperity rejoice with trembling, and so as to expect a change. God also hath set the one over against the other; God hath wisely ordained these vicissitudes that prosperity and adversity should succeed one another in the course of men’ s lives. After him; either, 1. After man himself, or, as it may be rendered, after it, i.e. after his present condition, whether it be prosperous or afflictive. So the sense is, that no man might be able to foresee or find out what shall certainly befall him afterwards, and therefore might live in a constant dependence upon God, and might nether despair in trouble, nor be secure or presumptuous in prosperity, because of the frequent and sudden changes from one to the other. Or, 2. After God, that no man might come after God, and review his works, and find any fault in them, or pretend that he could have managed things better, because this mixture of prosperity and adversity is most convenient both for the glory of God’ s wisdom, and justice, and goodness and for the benefit of mankind, who have all absolute need of this vicissitude, lest they should be either corrupted and ruined by perpetual prosperity, as many have been, or overwhelmed with uninterrupted adversity.

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.Ver. 14. In the day of prosperity be joyful.] Here we have some fair days, some foul - crosses like foul weather, come before they are sent for; for as fair weather, the more is the pity, may do hurt, so may prosperity, as it did to David, who therefore had his interchanges of a worse condition, as it was but needful; his prosperity, like checker work, was intermingled with adversity. See the circle God goes in with his people; in that thirtieth Psalm David was afflicted; he was delivered and grew wanton; then troubled again; cries again; God turns his mourning into joy again. Thus God sets the one against the other, as it were, in equilibrio, in even balance, for our greatest good. Sometimes he weighs us in the balance and finds us too light, then he thinks best to make us "heavy through manifold temptations." Sometimes he finds our water somewhat too high, and then as a physician, no less cunning than loving, he fits us with that which will reduce all to the healthsome temper of a broken spirit. But if we be but prosperity proof, there is no such danger of adversity. Some of those in Queen Mary’ s days who kept their garments close about them, wore them afterwards more loosely. Prosperity makes the saints rust sometimes; therefore God sets his scullions to scour them and make them bright, though they make themselves black. This scouring if they will scape, let Solomon’ s counsel be taken, "In the day of prosperity be joyful," - i.e., serve God with cheerfulness in the abundance of all things, and reckon upon it, the more wages the more work. Is it not good reason? Solomon’ s altar was four times as large as that of Moses; and Ezekiel’ s temple ten times larger than Solomon’ s; to teach that where God gives much, he expects much. Otherwise God will "curse our blessings," make us "ashamed of our revenues through his fierce anger," and "destroy us after he hath done us good." In the day of adversity consider.] Sit alone, and be in meditation of the matter. "Commune with your own consciences and be still," or make a pause. See who it is that smites thee, and for what. Take God’ s part against thyself, as a physician observes which way nature works, and helps it. Consider that God "afflicts not willingly," or "from his heart"; it goes as much against the heart with him as against the hair with us. He is forced of "very faithfulness" to afflict us, because he will be true to our souls and save them; he is forced to diet us, who have surfeited of prosperity, and keep us short.

(14) Ecclus. 14:14, 33. The first clause may be more closely rendered, “In the good day be of good cheer.” As a consolation in time of adversity the thought Job 2:10 is offered. The last clause connects itself with the first, the idea being that of Ecc 3:22; “take the present enjoyment which God gives, seeing that man cannot tell what shall be after him.”

Verse 14. In the day of prosperity be joyful] When ye receive these temporal gifts from God, enjoy them, and be thankful to the Giver: but remember, this sunshine will not always last. God has balanced prosperity and adversity against each other; and were it not so, how many would put the former in the place of God himself!

14. In the day of prosperity be joyful] Literally, In the day of good, be in good, i.e. use it as it should be used. True wisdom, the teacher urges, is found in a man’s enjoying whatever good actually comes to him. The warning is against the temper which “taking thought for the morrow,” is “over exquisiteTo cast the fashion of uncertain evils.”And on the other hand he adds In the day of evil, look well, i.e. consider why it comes, and what may be gained from it. God also hath set the one over against the other] The words assert what we should call the doctrine of averages in the distribution of outward good and evil. God has made one like (or parallel with) the other, balances this against that and this in order that man may find nothing at all after him. The last words may mean either (1) that man may have nothing more to learn or discover in his own hereafter; or (2) that man may fail to forecast what shall come to pass on earth after he has left it, as in ch. Ecclesiastes 6:12, and may look to the future calmly, free from the idle dreams of pessimism or optimism. The last meaning seems most in harmony with the dominant tone of the book, and has parallels in the teaching of moralists who have given counsel based on like data. In the noble hymn of Cleanthes to Zeus (18) we have the Stoic view in language presenting a striking parallel to that of Ecc 7:13-14. ἀλλὰσὺκαὶτὰπερισσὰἐπίστασαιἄρτιαθεῖναι,καὶκοσμεῖντὰἄκοσμα, καὶοὐφίλα, σοὶφίλαἐστινὧδεγὰρεἰςἒνἅπαντασυνήρμοσαςἐσθλὰκακοῖσιν,ὥσθʼ ? ἕναγίγνεσθαιπάντωνλόγοναἰὲνἐόντα.“Thou alone knowest how to change the oddTo even, and to make the crooked straight,And things discordant find accord in Thee.Thus in one whole Thou blendest ill with good,So that one law works on for evermore.”The Epicurean poet writes: “Prudens futuri temporis exitumCaliginosa nocte premit Deus,Ridetque, si mortalis ultraFas trepidat. Quod adest, mementoComponere aequus; cetera fluminisRitu feruntur, nunc medio alveoCum pace delabentis EtruscumIn mare, nunc lapides adesos,Stirpesque raptas et pecus et domosVolventis unβ.”“God in His wisdom hides from sight,Veiled in impenetrable night,The future chance and change,And smiles when mortals’ anxious fears,Forecasting ills of coming years,Beyond their limit range.“Use then the present well, and deemAll else drifts onward, like a streamWhose waters seaward flow,Now gliding in its tranquil course,Now rushing on with headlong forceO’er rocks that lie below.”Od. iii. 29. 29–38.

Good and prosperous days are in God’s design special times of comfort and rejoicing: the days of affliction and trouble, are in God’s design the proper seasons of recollection and serious consideration.

14. Be joyful… consider — Common sense rebukes grumbling over the present and foreboding over the hereafter. There should be no pause after “consider,” as the remainder of the verse tells us what to consider.