Ecclesiastes 9:1

For all this I considered in mine heart,.... What goes before, in the latter end of the preceding chapter, concerning the various providences of God, the difficulty of finding out the reasons of

For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

CHAPTER 9 All things in the hand of God: his love or hatred not visible in them; but the like happeneth to good and bad in this life, and in death they know nothing hereof, and are themselves forgotten, . It is best therefore for a man to enjoy the gifts of God with cheerfulness, ; to be diligent in his calling, , and leave the issue to God, ,12. The praise of wisdom, . For; or, therefore, as the seventy interpreters render it. All this; all that I have said concerning the methods of Divine Providence towards good and bad men. To declare all this; to make this evident, first to myself, and then to others, as occasion required. The righteous and the wise; whom he mentions not exclusively, as if wicked men were not in God’ s hand, for the next clause relates both to good and bad men; but eminently, because by the course of God’ s providence towards them they might seem to be quite neglected and forsaken by God. Their works; either efficiently, all their actions and employments; or objectively, all things done to them, all events which befall them. Are in the hand of God; are subject to his power, and governed by his providence, as this phrase is used , compared with . And therefore although we cannot fully understand the reasons of all God’ s works, as he now said, , yet because they are done by his unerring hand, we may be assured that they are done both righteously and justly, and that no man hath cause to murmur at the prosperity of the wicked, or at the calamities of good men. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them; no man can judge by their present and outward conditions or dispensations of God’ s providence whether God loves or hates them, for whom he loves he chastens, and permitteth those whom he hates to prosper in the world. And this translation and interpretation agreeth well with the following verse. But I must confess it differs from almost all other, both ancient and modern, translations. And these words with the foregoing clause are translated otherwise, and that word for word according to the Hebrew, the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; also love and hatred (understand out of the foregoing clause, are in God’ s hand. And this may be meant either, 1. Of God’ s love and hatred, which he disposeth when, and to whom, and in what manner he pleaseth. Or, 2. Of, men’ s love and hatred, also their love and their hatred, the pronoun their being repeated out of the former clause, as is frequent in Scripture. And so the sense is, that not only men’ s works, as he now said, but even their inward passions or affections, which seem to be most in their own power, are as much in God’ s disposal as their outward actions.

Ecclesiastes 9:1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, [are] in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred [by] all [that is] before them.Ver. 1. For all this I considered in mine heart.] He that will rightly consider of anything, had need to consider of many things; all that do concern it, all that do give light unto it, had need to be looked into, or else we fail too short. “ Sis ideo in partes circumspectissimus omnes. ” Even to declare all this.] Or, To clear up all this to myself. Symmachus rendered it, Ut ventilarem haec universa, that I might sift and search out all these things by much tossing and turning of the thoughts. Truth lies low and close, and must with much industry be drawn into the open light. That the righteous and the wise.] These are terms convertible. The world’ s wizards shall one day cry out, Nos insensati, We fools counted their lives madness, &c. And their works.] Or, Their services, actions, employments, all which together with themselves are "in the hand of God," who knows them by name, and exerciseth a singular providence over them, so that they are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." "The enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him." What a sweet providence was it, that when all the males of Israel appeared thrice in the year before the Lord at Jerusalem, none of their neighbour nations, though professed enemies to Israel, should so much as desire their land. And again, that after the slaughter of Gedaliah, so pleasant a country - left utterly destitute of inhabitants, and compassed about with such warlike nations, as the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philistines, &c. - was not invaded nor replanted by foreigners for seventy years’ time, but the room kept empty till the return of the naturals. No man knows either love or hatred, &c.] That is, The thing he either loves or hates, say some interpreters, by reason of the fickleness of his easily alterable affections. How soon was Amnon’ s heart estranged from his Tamar, and Ahasuerus from his minion Haman, the Jews from John Baptist, the Galatians from Paul, &c.! But I rather approve of those that refer this love and hatred unto God - understanding them, θεοπρεπως, in a divine manner - and make the meaning to be, that by the things of this life, "which come alike to all," as the next verse hath it, no man can make judgment of God’ s love or hatred towards him. The sun of prosperity shines as well upon brambles of the wilderness, as fruit trees of the orchard; the snow and hail of adversity lights upon the best gardens, as well as upon the wild waste. Ahab’ s and Josiah’ s ends concur in the very circumstances.

IX. (1) No man knoweth.—If this verse stood by itself we should understand, “Man cannot know whether he will experience marks of the Divine favour, or the reverse;” but taking Ecclesiastes 9:6 into account, we understand of a man’s own love or hatred the objects of which he cannot tell beforehand. By all.—Rather, all is before them.

CHAPTER IX No men knows, by any present sign, what is before him, 1. All things happen alike to all, 2, 3. Comparison of the state of the dead and the living, 4-6. Enjoy God's mercies, and live to his glory, 7-10. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, 11. Man is ignorant of futurity, 12, 13. The account of the little city, and the poor wise man, 14-18. NOTES ON CHAP. IX Verse 1. The righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God] This is a continuation of the preceding subject; and here the wise man draws a conclusion from what he had seen, and from the well-known character of God, that the righteous, the wise, and their conduct, were all in the hand of God, protected by his power, and safe in his approbation: but we cannot judge from the occurrences which take place in life who are the objects of God's love or displeasure.

For all this I considered in my heart] More literally, For to all this I gave my heart to dig through, i.e. to explain and penetrate to the secret of the great enigma of life. that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God] The words hover, as it were, between the thought of Destiny and Providence, the latter, perhaps, slightly predominating. The wise and good need not despair, though they remain in ignorance of the working of the Divine Will. It is enough for them to know that they are in Its power, under Its care, and that It is in its essence as righteous as It is almighty. no man knoweth either love or hatred] The words have been differently interpreted according as the “love” and “hatred” are referred to God or man. In the former case, the thought would be, that as things are, no man knows by the outward events of his life whether he is the object of God’s favour or displeasure, in the latter that no man knows who, as he passes through life, will be the objects of his love or hate. Both interpretations are tenable, but the former seems more in harmony with what follows. The latter has the interest of finding a parallel in the thought of Sophocles as to the mutability of human life: φθίνειμὲνἰσχὺςγῆς, φθίνειδὲσώματος,θνήσκειδὲπίστις, βλαστάνειδʼ ? ἀπιστία,καὶπνεῦματαὐτὸνοὔποτʼ ? οὔτʼ ? ἐνἀνδράσινφίλοιςβέβηκεν, οὔτεπρὸςπόλινπόλει.τοῖςμένγὰρἤδη, τοῖςδʼ ? ἐνὑστέρῳχρόνῳτὰτερπνὰπικρὰγίγνεταικαὖθιςφίλα.“Earth’s strength doth wither, withers strength of limb,And trust dies out, and mistrust grows apace,And the same spirit lasts not among themWho once were friends, nor joineth state with state.To these at once, to those in after years,Sweet things grow bitter, then turn sweet again.”�d. Col. 610–615. by all that is before them] Better, all is before them. i. e. as in what follows: all chances and changes of life coming from love or wrath, are possible in the future.

A good man’s trust in God is set forth as a counterpoise to our Ignorance of the ways of Providence.

1. For introduces this verse as a reason for the statement which concludes the previous chapter. To declare, means to prove. The righteous and wise cannot discern love or hatred — which of the two will be their next experience.