17 Do not much wrong, neither be thou a fool, why dost thou die within thy time?
The fear of Jehovah addeth days, And the years of the wicked are shortened.
And Thou, O God, dost bring them down To a pit of destruction, Men of blood and deceit reach not to half their days, And I -- I do trust in Thee!
and Er, Judah's first-born, is evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and Jehovah doth put him to death. And Judah saith to Onan, `Go in unto the wife of thy brother, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother;' and Onan knoweth that the seed is not `reckoned' his; and it hath come to pass, if he hath gone in unto his brother's wife, that he hath destroyed `it' to the earth, so as not to give seed to his brother; and that which he hath done is evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and He putteth him also to death.
And it cometh to pass, `in' about ten days, that Jehovah smiteth Nabal, and he dieth,
Not in his day is it completed, And his bending branch is not green. He shaketh off as a vine his unripe fruit, And casteth off as an olive his blossom.
and Ananias hearing these words, having fallen down, did expire, and great fear came upon all who heard these things,
and she fell down presently at his feet, and expired, and the young men having come in, found her dead, and having carried forth, they buried `her' by her husband;
wherefore having put aside all filthiness and superabundance of evil, in meekness be receiving the engrafted word, that is able to save your souls;
What -- dost thou make pleasing thy ways to seek love? Therefore even the wicked thou hast taught thy ways. Also in thy skirts hath been found the blood of innocent needy souls, Not by digging have I found them, but upon all these.
And He saith unto me, `Hast thou seen, son of man? hath it been a light thing to the house of Judah to do the abomination that they have done here, that they have filled the land with violence, and turn back to provoke Me to anger? and lo, they are putting forth the branch unto their nose!
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 7
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
Solomon had given many proofs and instances of the vanity of this world and the things of it; now, in this chapter,
Ecc 7:1-6
In these verses Solomon lays down some great truths which seem paradoxes to the unthinking part, that is, the far greatest part, of mankind.
Ecc 7:7-10
Solomon had often complained before of the oppressions which he saw under the sun, which gave occasion for many melancholy speculations and were a great discouragement to virtue and piety. Now here,
Ecc 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.
Ecc 7:23-29
Solomon had hitherto been proving the vanity of the world and its utter insufficiency to make men happy; now here he comes to show the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make men miserable; and this, as the former, he proves from his own experience, and it was a dear-bought experience. He is here, more than any where in all this book, putting on the habit of a penitent. He reviews what he had been discoursing of already, and tells us that what he had said was what he knew and was well assured of, and what he resolved to stand by: All this have I proved by wisdom, v. 23. Now here,