The Teacher continues a series of proverbs questioning common wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-2, Perfume of death
A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of every man;
the living should take this to heart.
Integrity is better than wealth (Proverbs 22:1 agrees) but the awareness of our mortality drives the Teacher's view of what is truly valuable. Davidson suggests that the fine perfume in the first verse hints at perfuming oils used in the anointing of the dead.
The first line of this chapter is, in Hebrew, tov shem mishemen tov, (the NIV translates tov as "good" and then "better.") Note the beautiful rhythm of those words, almost a syllabic palindrome! The Teacher pairs shem (name) with shemen (oil) to create this ripple of syllables, an aspect of the Hebrew poetry lost in translation into English.
Ecclesiastes 7:3-4, Sorrow and mourning
Sorrow is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
Our depressed and cynical Teacher says that we learn more in mourning than we do in decadence.
Ecclesiastes 7:5-7, The crackling cackles of fools
It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke
than to listen to the song of fools.
Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
so is the laughter of fools.
This too is meaningless.
Extortion turns a wise man into a fool,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
Although fools may be easier to listen to, they are of no help; their laughter is a cackle, like crackling twigs in a fire. Indeed, a wise man can be brought down into foolishness by bribes. Davidson points out Hebrew wordplay in verse 6 with has·sî·rîm (of thorns) and has·sîr (under the pot), set up by shiyr (song) in verse 5. The Hebrew emphasis on ripples of sounds, shiyr ... hassirim... hassir. makes the passage easy to say and (if you are Hebrew) easy to memorize.
Ecclesiastes 7:8-9, Steady patient work
The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.
It is easy to plan things and begin them; much better is the ability to finish projects. The concept of patient work bleeds into verse 9 (says Davidson) as one imagines the proud getting angry and stalking off. Put up with insults to your pride and keep working!
Ecclesiastes 7:10, The good ole days
Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?"
For it is not wise to ask such questions.
This advice from over 2500 years ago resonates through the ages. In the one hundred generations since these words were written, each aging generation has looked back on the days of its youth as the "good ole days," viewing the earlier times of energy and idealism through rose-colored glasses. Whining about the good ole days is foolishness, says the Teacher.
I was a teenager when I became a Christian. In my involvement in churches in the 1970s, I heard a lot of elderly church men and women complain about "kids these days." (There was the Vietnam war, hippies, marijuana, etc. And there were Jesus people.) I resolved then that when I got old I would not complain about the youth. I've kept that promise. (That commitment has been helped by teaching college students on university campuses, and getting to know lots of high energy, committed "kids". I have no complaints about the youth. College administrators are another story... but I digress.)
Ecclesiastes 7:11-12, Insurance
Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
and benefits those who see the sun.
Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.
There are some natural shelters, nature insurance, says the Teacher: Wisdom and money. Wisdom and knowledge help one survive... and money helps!
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, God controls Fate, but we don't understand
Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?
When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one as well as the other.
Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.
There is a certain fatalism here. The Teacher believes that God is in control but makes no attempt to understand why God does one thing and not another.
Ecclesiastes 7:15-18, Overrighteous, overwicked -- do not be either
In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
a righteous man perishing in his righteousness,
and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise‑‑
why destroy yourself?
Do not be overwicked,
and do not be a fool‑‑
why die before your time?
It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
The man who fears God will avoid all [extremes].
Justice is not always served (despite what Proverbs says!) Some evil people seem to avoid justice; some good people are punished for doing right. The psalmist in Psalm 88 (and many other psalms) is much more passionate about this injustice; the Teacher here seems to sigh with sadness and acceptance.
What does it mean to be "overrighteous"? The passage emphasizes moderation; extremism is destructive and leads to death. As Davidson says, there is emphasis on having one's eyes open to the "overrighteous" and "overwise", to people who might ask you to sell all to follow their campaigns. The cynicism of an elder scholar shines clearly here.
Ecclesiastes 7:19, But still Wisdom...
Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.
Still -- wisdom can make you powerful... maybe more powerful than the minyan that runs the town.
Ecclesiastes 7:20, No one is righteous
There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins.
The cynic is a realist here: everyone who examines themselves (as suggested by Socrates) recognizes their own stubbornness and greed. With his emphasis on moderation, the Teacher is warning us about expecting perfection.
Ecclesiastes 7:21-22, Eavesdropping
Do not pay attention to every word people say,
or you may hear your servant cursing you‑‑
for you know in your heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.
Our cynic recognizes that people say things they don't mean and that words can hurt. Don't eavesdrop on your servants, says the Teacher, for you may hear things you do not want to hear. (The same goes for teachers eavesdropping on their students!)
Ecclesiastes 7:23-25, Where is wisdom?
All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
"I am determined to be wise"‑‑
but this was beyond me.
Whatever wisdom may be,
it is far off and most profound‑‑
who can discover it?
So I turned my mind to understand,
to investigate and to search out wisdom
and the scheme of things
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
and the madness of folly.
Our aging cynic despairs at really obtaining wisdom. The suffering Job agrees -- see Job 28:12-23.
Ecclesiastes 7:26, The stranger-woman
I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare.
The woman "who is a snare" is the adulteress, the "stranger-woman" of Proverbs 5. There are some very practical reasons, argues the Teacher, for avoiding her.
Ecclesiastes 7:27-29, No one upright
"Look," says the Teacher, "this is what I have discovered:
"Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things‑‑
while I was still searching but not finding‑‑
I found one [upright] man among a thousand,
but not one [upright] woman among them all.
This only have I found:
God made mankind upright,
but men have gone in search of many schemes."
God made humankind upright, says the Teacher, but men and women have stubbornly gone their own way. Maybe there is one upright man among a thousand... and no upright woman among them all. If we ignore the cultural sexism here, the main point is despair in finding one upright person. (See verse 20, above.) In the synthetic parallelism of the Old Testament, the passage builds one line after the other: "Maybe one upright man among a thousand... and no upright women...."
We will look more at the Teacher's despair tomorrow. (Hang on -- there is meaning to this skepticism!)
No comments:
Post a Comment