Ecclesiastes 4 Study Notes

4:9-12 Friendship is the theme of this section. The advantages of friends are that they help one another get work done, that one friend sustains another when disaster strikes, that they give comfort to one another against the bitterness of life, and that they protect one another from enemies. Interestingly, friendship is one area of life that Ecclesiastes never calls “futile.”

4:11-12 These verses do not refer to lying together sexually. It is an image of travelers sleeping outdoors in the desert; they must huddle together to keep warm. The fact that v. 12 asserts that three are better than two makes clear that these are friends, not lovers.

4:13-16 This section illustrates how fleeting political power is. There are two people here. The first person is an old king, who in his youth was poor but rose to power through skill and perseverance. This king is now old but foolish. He has been in power for so long that he has lost touch with changing political circumstances. The second person is a youth who, possessing the political skills the old king once had but lost, is now ready and able to usurp him (this is the youth of v. 13, who is called the second youth in v. 15). But even though the second youth is successful for a time and pleases the crowd, he will also eventually get old, lose touch, and be abandoned. He is just the latest in a long line of kings who come and go. Political power and popularity are by nature fleeting.