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CHAPTER 7
name--character; a godly mind and life; not mere reputation with man, but what a man is in the eyes of God, with whom the name and reality are one thing ( Isaiah 9:6 ). This alone is "good," while all else is "vanity" when made the chief end.
ointment--used lavishly at costly banquets and peculiarly refreshing in the sultry East. The Hebrew for "name" and for "ointment," have a happy paronomasia, Sheem and Shemen. "Ointment" is fragrant only in the place where the person is whose head and garment are scented, and only for a time. The "name" given by God to His child ( Revelation 3:12 ) is for ever and in all lands. So in the case of the woman who received an everlasting name from Jesus Christ, in reward for her precious ointment ( Isaiah 56:5 , 14:3-9 ). Jesus Christ Himself hath such a name, as the Messiah, equivalent to Anointed ( Solomon 1:3 ).
and the day of [his] death, &c.--not a general censure upon God for creating man; but, connected with the previous clause, death is to him, who hath a godly name, "better" than the day of his birth; "far better," as Philippians 1:23 has it.
2. Proving that it is not a sensual enjoyment of earthly goods which is meant in Ecclesiastes 3:13 , 5:18 . A thankful use of these is right, but frequent feasting Solomon had found dangerous to piety in his own case. So Job's fear ( Ecclesiastes 1:4 Ecclesiastes 1:5 ). The house of feasting often shuts out thoughts of God and eternity. The sight of the dead in the "house of mourning" causes "the living" to think of their own "end."
3. Sorrow--such as arises from serious thoughts of eternity.
laughter--reckless mirth ( Ecclesiastes 2:2 ).
by the sadness . . . better--( Psalms 126:5 Psalms 126:6 , 2 Corinthians 4:17 , Hebrews 12:10 Hebrews 12:11 ). MAURER translates: "In sadness of countenance there is (may be) a good (cheerful) heart." So Hebrew, for "good," equivalent to "cheerful" ( Ecclesiastes 9:7 ); but the parallel clause supports English Version.
5. ( Psalms 141:4 Psalms 141:5 ). Godly reproof offends the flesh, but benefits the spirit. Fools' songs in the house of mirth please the flesh, but injure the soul.
6. crackling--answers to the loud merriment of fools. It is the very fire consuming them which produces the seeming merry noise ( Joel 2:5 ). Their light soon goes out in the black darkness. There is a paronomasia in the Hebrew, Sirim ("thorns"), Sir ("pot"). The wicked are often compared to "thorns" ( 2 Samuel 23:6 , Nahum 1:10 ). Dried cow-dung was the common fuel in Palestine; its slowness in burning makes the quickness of a fire of thorns the more graphic, as an image of the sudden end of fools ( Psalms 118:12 ).