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f. God's providence is immutable and inscrutable (7:13-14)

7:13-14. Solomon closed his treatment on the wise response to adversity and prosperity by reminding his readers that God sovereignly disposes of both and that His disposition of them is immutable (cf. 3:14) and inscrutable. Though people might find fault with God's ways (what God has done), no one can change what He thinks is wrong or unfair (Who can straighten what He has made crooked?). Moreover, God so mingles together adversity and prosperity that man cannot discover anything about his future (cf. 8:7; 10:14). In view of this, Solomon recommended submission to God's sovereignty, enjoying the good times (be happy) and remembering (consider) in bad times that adversity has inscrutable purposes beyond finite human understanding (cf. 8:17)

The argument of this section has generally been misunderstood. This may be due to a failure to relate it to the preceding section (vv. 1-14) and the failure to recognize that Solomon was seeking to combat a false concept, namely, the rigid application of the doctrine of retribution by some of the wisdom teachers of his day. (Cf. Job 4:7-9; 8:20; 34:11-12; 36:6-7 for examples of overly rigid applications of this doctrine.)
Solomon argued that prosperity (cf. Ecclesiastes 7:11-12) was no sure indication of God's pleasure, nor was adversity (cf. vv. 2-4) a sure sign of His anger. Solomon had seen the wicked prospering and the righteous perishing (v. 15). So a person should not depend on his righteousness as the means of guaranteeing reward (v. 16). Moreover, absolute righteousness is impossible because no one is so righteous that he always avoids sin (v. 20) or so wise that he is always able to avoid the snares of wickedness and folly (vv. 26-28). Besides, Solomon said, no one is wise enough to understand God's scheme of things (v. 24).

a. Avoid depending on your righteousness and living wickedly (7:15-18)

These verses contain advice on how to live in the light of God's enigmatic disposition of prosperity and adversity. In the light of the exceptions to the doctrine of retribution which Solomon had observed (v. 15), he advised against depending on one's own righteousness (v. 16). However, he continued to warn against indulging in wickedness because of its potential danger (v. 17).

7:15. Solomon said that in his brief or fleeting lifetime (not a meaningless life as in NIV; cf. comments on 3:19; 6:12) he had seen exceptions to the doctrine that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. He had seen the righteous... perishing and the wicked ... living long. The word "in" in the phrases in his righteousness and in his wickedness can here mean "in spite of." These phrases "in his righteousness" and "in his wickedness" argue against the common view that in 7:16 Solomon was warning against legalistic or Pharisaic self-righteousness. Such would have been a sin and would have been so acknowledged by Solomon who was concerned about true exceptions to the doctrine of retribution, not supposed ones (cf. 8:10-14 where this doctrine is discussed again).

7:16-18. These verses have generally been interpreted as teaching the "golden mean" or a moderate lifestyle, avoiding both overzealous righteousness and overindulgent sinfulness. And righteousness here is generally interpreted as referring to legalistic or Pharisaic self-righteousness. But this interpretation fails to relate these verses adequately to Solomon's argument against the rigid application of the doctrine of retribution in God's distributing adversity and prosperity. Moreover, the meaning of the verb tissomem (from samem) must be correctly interpreted. Though almost universally interpreted in the sense of "to destroy or ruin oneself," the verb in this form never means this elsewhere. Instead it means "to be appalled or astounded" (cf. Daniel 8:27, "appalled"; Psalms 143:4, "dismayed"). This fits in nicely with Solomon's argument here. He urged his readers not to be over righteous or over wise "lest they be confounded or astonished." He meant they should not depend on their righteousness or wisdom to guarantee God's blessing because they might be confounded, dismayed, or disappointed like the righteous people whom Solomon had seen perishing in spite of their righteousness (Ecclesiastes 7:15).

Also the fact that God did not punish in some cases (cf. v. 15 b) should not be taken as a license to sin (do not be over wicked, v. 17); God might judge them and they might die before they had to (die before your time; cf. Psalms 55:23). Solomon closed his argument in this section by noting that it is good to follow both warnings and by recommending that one who fears God (cf. Ecclesiastes 3:14; 5:7; 8:12; 12:13) should avoid all (or better, "both") extremes (7:18). As in 2:14 and 3:19, the Hebrew word kol can mean either "both" or "all." The two extremes to avoid are (a) depending on one's own righteousness and (b) becoming loose in one's living (being overly wicked).

It should be noted what Solomon did not say or imply in 7:16-18. Solomon's advice should not be taken to imply that he believed in halfhearted obedience to God's commands or advocated a little wickedness and a little folly. Though he believed that complete righteousness is unattainable (v. 20) and that some folly is unavoidable (see comments on vv. 26-29), he never advocated folly or wickedness. Instead he advocated living life in the light of God's judgment (11:9; 12:14). Though he had observed exceptions to the doctrine of retribution (7:15; 8:10-11), he nevertheless believed that God would judge (3:17; 8:12-13). Solomon's only uncertainty about God's judgment was its timing; like everything else, it would be in God's time (3:17; cf. 3:11). So people should avoid folly and wickedness as much as possible and live as wisely and as righteously as possible.

b. Wisdom though valuable gives inadequate protection (7:19-24)

Solomon had recognized the inadequacy of righteousness to provide protection because of a seemingly uneven application of the doctrine of retribution (v. 15). Moreover, he added, no person is truly righteous (vv. 20-22). Though he acknowledged wisdom's protective power (v. 19), Solomon also demonstrated from his own experience that complete wisdom is unattainable (vv. 23-24).

7:19. Since righteousness cannot always protect from adversity (as demonstrated in vv. 15-16), some other protective power - perhaps that of wisdom is needed. Solomon affirmed that wisdom does give more protection than military strength: Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than 10 rulers in a city. (See an example of this in 9:13-18; cf. Proverbs 21:22.)

7:20-22. The need for wisdom is here made explicit by the Hebrew particle ki ("for," KJV; "indeed," NASB; not trans. in the NIV). Solomon noted that wisdom is needed "for" (or "because") righteousness is ineffective. No one is truly righteous; no one continually does... right ("good," NASB) and never sins. This absence of true righteousness is easily seen in the practice of one's servants (v. 21) and himself (v. 22); both had cursed ("reviled," JB) others.

7:23-24. However, Solomon immediately added that wisdom also has its limitations. Though he himself had applied all his great wisdom (1:16) to understand the enigmas in God's distribution of prosperity and adversity (7:1-18) and though he was determined to be wise (v. 23), he acknowledged that true wisdom was far beyond him. He also noted that nobody can comprehend or grasp what has happened (v. 24). The rendering, "Whatever has happened lies beyond our grasp, deep down, deeper than man can fathom" (NEB) gives the thought well. The NIV wrongly adds the word wisdom to verse 24 (the Heb. phrase mah sehayah means "what has happened" or "what exists," as in 1:9; 3:15; 6:10).

c. True righteousness and true wisdom are nonexistent (7:25-29)

This passage is often misinterpreted because of the failure to understand the wisdom concepts being used here. Contrary to the views of many modern commentators the terms in these verses are used with moral and ethical connotations. Of course this is true of the phrases and terms one "who pleases God" (v. 26), "sinner" (v. 26), and "upright" (vv. 28-29). But also, as in Proverbs, the term "folly" is virtually synonymous with "wickedness" (v. 25); "wisdom" (v. 25) is virtually synonymous with "righteousness." Wisdom emphasizes moral skillfulness, while folly emphasizes moral indiscretion (cf. Proverbs 1:3; 2:1-3 with Proverbs 2:9-11).

Also a proper understanding of this section depends on recognizing that Solomon personified folly somewhat as he did in Proverbs 1-9. The woman who is a snare (Ecclesiastes 7:26) is "Lady Folly," symbolized and epitomized in Proverbs by the adulteress (cf. Proverbs 9:13-17 with Proverbs 7; also cf. Zechariah 5:7-8). Thus Solomon argued in this section that in his search to discover the place of wisdom in the scheme of things (Ecclesiastes 7:25) he found that, though folly was a fate worse than death, only those pleasing to God escape folly's clutches (v. 26). He also discovered in this same search that such people are rare - in fact they are nearly nonexistent (v. 28). However, he noted that such a situation is not of divine but of human origin (v. 29).

7:25. The terminology in this verse is similar to Solomon's description of his earlier reflection on the relationship between wisdom and folly (2:12-17). He had already demonstrated the limitations of wisdom from his own experience (7:23-24). Now he reported on an investigation into the value of wisdom in relationship to wickedness and folly that further confirmed wisdom's limitations. The synonyms to understand, to investigate, and to search emphasize his diligence in seeking to comprehend wisdom and the scheme of things. ("And" should be rendered "in," pointing to "wisdom" and "scheme" as a hendiadys, a figure of speech in which two coordinated nouns form one concept. E.g., in Genesis 3:16 the literal Heb. phrase "pain and childbearing" refers to "pain in childbearing.") By this diligent search Solomon hoped to understand how stupid and insane wickedness and folly really are.

7:26. Solomon said that he made several discoveries in his investigation. First he discovered that "lady Folly" is worse (more bitter) than death. She is a snare and a trap, whose ways confine a person like chains (cf. Proverbs 2:18-19; 5:3-6; 7:24-26). Second he discovered that only the man who pleases God (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:26) can escape her.

7:27-28. Solomon also reported that in his continuing quest to discover the scheme of things (still searching modifies "scheme"), he made a third discovery: hardly anybody is upright. That this, however, is the nature of Solomon's third discovery may not be too clear because of (a) the elliptical nature of the wording in verse 28 b, (b) the misunderstanding of the parallelism of the verse, and (c) the figures of speech employed in it. When Solomon said that he found one... man among a thousand, he did not define what he meant by "man." The Hebrew word is 'adam, the generic word for man as well as the proper name Adam. Some commentators suggest that Solomon meant that nobody is as good as he was intended to be, that is, like Adam before the Fall. The NIV, on the other hand, adds the word "upright" to verse 28, understanding an ellipsis of this word which appears in verse 29. However, it is probably more in keeping with the argument of verses 26-29 to supply the ellipsis from verse 26, "a man who pleases [or, 'is pleasing to'] God." Using hyperbole, Solomon said that such men are extremely rare, that is, one in a thousand (cf. Job 9:3; 33:23 for the same figure).

Then Solomon added that not one such woman may be found. This does not mean that one out of every thousand males is pleasing to God and that no women at all please Him. Such a point hardly fits Solomon's argument. Instead, in the last line of Ecclesiastes 7:28 Solomon used (a) a kind of complementary parallelism in which the generic term 'adam ("man") is explained as including also the feminine gender in the sense of "mankind," and (b) a kind of graded numerical sequence in which the second of two terms gives the climax or point (cf. Proverbs 30:15,18,21). In this parallelism and numerical sequence his purpose was to say that such people - both men and women - are not only scarce but are nonexistent; there is "not one" among them all. This is also supported by the fact that "men" in Ecclesiastes 7:29 is "they" in Hebrew (i.e., both men and women).

7:29. Solomon, however, quickly noted that the reason for man's universal perversion was man's devising, not God's. God made mankind ('adam; cf. v. 28) uptight, but men (lit., "they," i.e., men and women) have gone in search of many schemes (cf. "scheme" in vv. 25,27 and "schemes" in 8:11). In other words, though people cannot know God's "scheme of things" they do follow their own schemes, which causes them to lack true uprightness, true righteousness, and true wisdom, and to fail to please God.

The key to interpreting this chapter properly is seeing how its two parts are related. The chapter begins with a question and a statement that magnify the value of wisdom (v. 1) and closes with an acknowledgment of wisdom's limitations (v. 17). Wisdom enables a wise man to avoid the king's wrath (vv. 2-9), but not even a wise man can figure out the enigmas in God's distribution of justice (vv. 10-17).

a. A wise man can avoid the king's wrath (8:1-9)

The background for this section is the recognition of the absolute authority of the king (cf. Proverbs 24:21-22) and the need for proper decorum to avert his wrath (cf. Proverbs 14:35; 16:14; 20:2).

(1) A wise man knows the proper decorum.

8:1. A wise man is able to practice proper decorum. In two rhetorical questions Solomon affirmed that only a wise man can size up situations properly and act accordingly. Only he knows the explanation (peser) of things. The noun peser occurs only here in Hebrew. In the Aramaic in Daniel it refers to the interpretation of dreams (cf. Daniel 5:12). Here it is applied to the Hebrew word dabar ("matter, affair," trans. "things" in the NIV). Because of his wisdom a wise person knows how to act graciously and avoid brash behavior which would lead to his harm (cf. Proverbs 14:35). For the two figures of speech (in the last two lines of Ecclesiastes 8:1) where behavior is reflected in one's face or appearance, see Numbers 6:25 and Proverbs 7:13.

(2) Obedience to the king is of paramount importance.

8:2-4. Solomon then set forth examples of proper decorum before a king. A king has great authority: he can (not will as in the NIV) do whatever he pleases, his word is supreme, and no one can say to him, What are you doing? (cf. Job 9:12; Isaiah 45:9 where the same idea is applied to God.) Therefore people should obey the king, maintain allegiance to him (do not be in a hurry to leave his presence, i.e., as suggested by the Heb. to resign from his service; cf. 10:4), and not be rebellious toward him by standing up for a bad cause.

(3) Proper decorum averts harm (8:5-9).

8:5-7. Affirming that obedience to a king's command would avert harm, Solomon commended the value of wisdom, saying that the wise person would know the best course of action and when to apply it (the proper time and procedure, lit., "time and judgment"). Such wisdom is necessary, according to Solomon, because people ('adam is generic, referring to people in general) suffer harm (a man's misery weighs heavily upon him). The word for "misery" (ra'ah) is related to the word for "harm" (ra') in verse 5. This misery comes because people are ignorant of "what will happen" and "when it will happen" (v. 7, NASB; not what is to come as in the NIV for the Heb. word means "when," not "what").

8:8-9. The reason for such misery is the inescapable consequences of wickedness that arise from such ignorance; just as no man can control the wind (cf. Proverbs 27:16), postpone the day of his death, or be discharged while in the midst of battle, so no man can escape the consequences of his wickedness. The first three clauses in Ecclesiastes 8:8 are parallel in Hebrew and are comparative to the last clause. Solomon observed these things as he applied his mind (cf. 1:17; 8:16) to what was done under the sun (cf. comments on 1:3).

The consequences Solomon had in view here resulted from a ruler's anger (the harm a wise man can escape by proper decorum; cf. 8:1) as is clear from verse 9 where Solomon referred to a ruler lording it over others to their hurt. (The NIV marg., "to their hurt," is preferred to "to his own hurt." The pronoun refers back to "others," which is lit., 'adam, "men.")

b. Even a wise man cannot understand God's judgment (8:10-17)