Ecclesiastes 7:3-13

3 Sorrow is better than laughter, ¹for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

5 It is ²better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

6 ³For as the crackling of ⁴thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity. ^[a]

7 Surely ⁵oppression drives the wise into madness, and ⁶a bribe corrupts the heart.

8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and ⁷the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

9 ⁸Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, ⁹for anger lodges in the heart^[b] of fools.

10 Say not, “Why were the former days better than these? ”For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who ¹⁰see the sun.

12 For the protection of wisdom is like ¹¹the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that ¹²wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

13 Consider ¹³the work of God: ¹⁴who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Ecclesiastes 7:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES 7

The wise man having exposed the many vanities to which men are subject in this life, and showed that there is no real happiness in all outward enjoyments under the sun; proceeds to observe what are remedies against them, of which he had interspersed some few hints before, as the fear and worship of God, and the free and, moderate use of the creatures; and here suggests more, and such as will protect from them, or support under them, or teach and instruct how to behave while attended with them, and to direct to what are proper and necessary in the pursuit of true and real happiness; such as care of a good name and reputation, Ec 7:1; frequent meditation on mortality, Ec 7:2-4; listening to the rebukes of the wise, which are preferable to the songs and mirth of fools, Ec 7:5,6; avoiding oppression and bribery, which are very pernicious, Ec 7:7; patience under provocations, and present bad times, as thought to be, Ec 7:8-10; a pursuit of that wisdom and knowledge which has life annexed to it, Ec 7:11,12; submission to the will of God, and contentment in every state, Ec 7:13,14; shunning extremes in righteousness and sin, the best antidote against which is the fear of God, Ec 7:15-18; such wisdom as not to be offended with everything that is done, or word that is spoken, considering the imperfection of the best of men, the weakness of others, and our own, Ec 7:19-22; and then the wise man acknowledges the imperfection of his own wisdom and knowledge, notwithstanding the pains he had taken, Ec 7:23-25; and laments his sin and folly in being drawn aside by women, Ec 7:26-28; and opens the cause of the depravity of human nature, removes it from God, who made man upright, and ascribes it to man, the inventor of evil things, Ec 7:29.

Cross References

• 1. 7:3 [2 Cor. 7:10]
• 2. 7:5 Prov. 13:18; 15:31, 32; [Ps. 141:5]
• 3. 7:6 [Joel 2:5]
• 4. 7:6 [Ps. 58:9; 118:12]
• 5. 7:7 [ch. 4:1]
• 6. 7:7 Deut. 16:19; See Prov. 17:8
• 7. 7:8 See Prov. 14:29
• 8. 7:9 [Prov. 14:17; 16:32; James 1:19]
• 9. 7:9 [Eph. 4:26]
• 10. 7:11 ch. 6:5; 11:7
• 11. 7:12 [ch. 10:19]
• 12. 7:12 Prov. 3:18
• 13. 7:13 [ch. 3:11]
• 14. 7:13 [ch. 1:15; Job 12:14; Isa. 14:27]

Footnotes

• [a] 7:6 The Hebrew term 'hebel' can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath” (see note on 1:2)
• [b] 7:9 Hebrew 'in the bosom'