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Commentary on Ecclesiastes 9 verses 4–10
Solomon, in a fret, had praised the dead more than the living (Ecc 4:2); but here, considering the advantages of life to prepare for death and make sure the hope of a better life, he seems to be of another mind.
I. He shows the advantages which the living have above those that are dead, Ecc 9:4-6. 1. While there is life there is hope. Dum spiro, spero - While I breathe, I hope. It is the privilege of the living that they are joined to the living, in relation, commerce, and conversation, and, while they are so, there is hope. If a man's condition be, upon any account, bad, there is hope it will be amended. If the heart be full of evil, and madness be in it, yet while there is life there is hope that by the grace of God there may be a blessed change wrought; but after men go to the dead (Ecc 9:3) it is too late then; he that is then filthy will be filthy still, for ever filthy. If men be thrown aside as useless, yet, while they are joined to the living, there is hope that they may yet again take root and bear fruit; he that is alive is, or may be, good for something, but he that is dead, as to this world, is not capable of being any further serviceable. Therefore a living dog is better than a dead lion; the meanest beggar alive has that comfort of this world and does that service to it which the greatest prince, when he is dead, is utterly incapable of. 2. While there is life there is an opportunity of preparing for death: The living know that which the dead have no knowledge of, particularly they know that they shall die, and are, or may be, thereby influenced to prepare for that great change which will come certainly, and may come suddenly. Note, The living cannot but know that they shall die, that they must needs die. They know they are under a sentence of death; they are already taken into custody by its messengers, and feel themselves declining. This is a needful useful knowledge; for what is our business, while we live, but to get ready to die: The living know they shall die; it is a thing yet to come, and therefore provision may be made for it. The dead know they are dead, and it is too late; they are on the other side the great gulf fixed. 3. When life is gone all this world is gone with it, as to us. (1.) There is an end of all our acquaintance with this world and the things of it: The dead know not any thing of that which, while they lived, they were intimately conversant with. It does not appear that they know any thing of what is done by those they leave behind. Abraham is ignorant of us; they are removed into darkness, Job 10:22. (2.) There is an end of all our enjoyments in this world: They have no more a reward for their toils about the world, but all they got must be left to others; they have a reward for their holy actions, but not for their worldly ones. The meats and the belly will be destroyed together, Joh 6:27; Co1 6:13. It is explained Ecc 9:6. Neither have they any more a portion for ever, none of that which they imagined would be a portion for ever, of that which is done and got under the sun. The things of this world will not be a portion for the soul because they will not be a portion for ever; those that choose them, and have them for their good things, have only a portion in this life, Psa 17:14. The world can only be an annuity for life, not a portion for ever. (3.) There is an end of their name. There are but few whose names survive them long; the grave is a land of forgetfulness, for the memory of those that are laid there is soon forgotten; their place knows them no more, nor the lands they called by their own names. (4.) There is an end of their affections, their friendships and enmities: Their love, and their hatred, and their envy have now perished; the good things they loved, the evil things they hated, the prosperity of others, which they envied, are now all at an end with them. Death parts those that loved one another, and puts an end to their friendship, and those that hated one another too, and puts an end to their quarrels. Actio moritur cum person - The person and his actions die together. There we shall be never the better for our friends (their love can do us no kindness), nor ever the worse for our enemies - their hatred and envy can do us no damage. There the wicked cease from troubling. Those things which now so affect us and fill us, which we are so concerned about and so jealous of, will there be at an end.
II. Hence he infers that it is our wisdom to make the best use of life that we can while it does last, and manage wisely what remains of it.
1.Let us relish the comforts of life while we live, and cheerfully take our share of the enjoyments of it. Solomon, having been himself ensnared by the abuse of sensitive delights, warns others of the danger, not by a total prohibition of them, but by directing to the sober and moderate use of them; we may use the world, but must not abuse it, take what is to be had out of it, and expect no more. Here we have,
(1.)The particular instances of this cheerfulness prescribed: "Thou art drooping and melancholy, go thy way, like a fool as thou art, and get into a better temper of mind." [1.] "Let thy spirit be easy and pleasant; then let there be joy and a merry heart within," a good heart (so the word is), which distinguishes this from carnal mirth and sensual pleasure, which are the evil of the heart, both a symptom and a cause of much evil there. We must enjoy ourselves, enjoy our friends, enjoy our God, and be careful to keep a good conscience, that nothing may disturb us in these enjoyments. We must serve God with gladness, in the use of what he gives us, and be liberal in communicating it to others, and not suffer ourselves to be oppressed with inordinate care and grief about the world. We must eat our bread as Israelites, not in our mourning (Deu 26:14), as Christians, with gladness and liberality of heart, Act 2:46. See Deu 28:47. [2.] "Make use of the comforts and enjoyments which God has given thee: Eat thy bread, drink thy wine, thine, not another's, not the bread of deceit, nor the wine of violence, but that which is honestly got, else thou canst not eat it with any comfort nor expect a blessing upon it - thy bread and thy wine, such as are agreeable to thy place and station, not extravagantly above it nor sordidly below it; lay out what God has given thee for the ends for which thou art entrusted with it, as being but a steward." [3.] "Evidence thy cheerfulness (Ecc 9:8): Let thy garments be always white. Observe a proportion in thy expenses; reduce not thy food in order to gratify thy pride, nor thy clothing in order to gratify thy voluptuousness. Be neat, wear clean linen, and be not slovenly." Or, "Let thy garments be white in token of joy and cheerfulness," which were expressed by white raiment (Rev 3:4); "and as a further token of joy, let thy head lack no ointment that is fit for it." Our Saviour admitted this piece of pleasure at a feast (Mat 26:7), and David observes it among the gifts of God's bounty to him. Psa 23:5, Thou anointest my head with oil. Not that we must place our happiness in any of the delights of sense, or set our hearts upon them, but what God has given us we must make as comfortable a use of as we can afford, under the limitations of sobriety and wisdom, and not forgetting the poor. [4.] "Make thyself agreeable to thy relations: Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest. Do not engross thy delights, making much of thyself only, and not caring what becomes of those about thee, but let them share with thee and make them easy too. Have a wife; for even in paradise it was not good for man to be alone. Keep to thy wife, to one, and do not multiply wives" (Solomon had found the mischief of that); "keep to her only, and have nothing to do with any other." How can a man live joyfully with one with whom he does not live honestly? "Love thy wife; and the wife whom thou lovest thou wilt be likely to live joyfully with." When we do the duty of relations we may expect the comfort of them. See Pro 5:19. "Live with thy wife, and delight in her society. Live joyfully with her, and be most cheerful when thou art with her. Take pleasure in thy family, thy vine and thy olive plants."
(2.)The qualifications necessary to this cheerfulness: "Rejoice and have a merry heart, if God now accepts thy works. If thou art reconciled to God, and recommended to him, then thou has reason to be cheerful, otherwise not." Rejoice not, O Israel! for joy, as other people, for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, Hos 9:1. Our first care must be to make our peace with God, and obtain his favour, to do that which he will accept of, and then, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy. Note, Those whose works God has accepted have reason to be cheerful and ought to be so. 'Now that thou eatest the bread of thy sacrifices with joy, and partakest of the wine of thy drink-offerings with a merry heart, now God accepts thy works. Thy religious services, when performed with holy joy, are pleasing to God; he loves to have his servants sing at their work, it proclaims him a good Master.
(3.)The reasons for it. "Live joyfully, for," [1.] "It is all little enough to make thy passage through this world easy and comfortable: The days of thy life are the days of thy vanity; there is nothing here but trouble, and disappointment. Thou wilt have time enough for sorrow and grief when thou canst not help it, and therefore live joyfully while thou canst, and perplex not thyself with thoughts and cares about tomorrow; sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. Let a gracious serenity of mind be a powerful antidote against the vanity of the world." [2.] "It is all thou canst get from this world: That is thy portion in the things of this life. In God, and another life, thou shalt have a better portion, and a better recompence for thy labours in religion; but for thy pains which thou takest about the things under the sun this is all thou canst expect, and therefore do not deny this to thyself."
2.Let us apply ourselves to the business of life while life lasts, and so use the enjoyments of it as by them to be fitted for the employments: "Therefore eat with joy and a merry heart, not that thy soul may take its ease (as Luk 12:19), but that thy soul may take the more pains and the joy of the Lord may be its strength and oil to its wheels," Ecc 9:10. Whatsoever thy hand finds to do do it with thy might. Observe here, (1.) There is not only something to be had, but something to be done, in this life, and the chief good we are to enquire after is the good we should do, Ecc 2:3. This is the world of service; that to come is the world of recompence. This is the world of probation and preparation for eternity; we are here upon business, and upon our good behaviour. (2.) Opportunity is to direct and quicken duty. That is to be done which our hand finds to do, which occasion calls for; and an active hand will always find something to do that will turn to a good account. What must be done, of necessity, our hand will here find a price in it for the doing of, Pro 17:16. (3.) What good we have an opportunity of doing we must do while we have the opportunity, and do it with our might, with care, vigour, and resolution, whatever difficulties and discouragements we may meet with in it. Harvest-days are busy days; and we must make hay while the sun shines. Serving God and working out our salvation must be done with all that is within us, and all little enough. (4.) There is good reason why we should work the works of him that sent us while it is day, because the night comes, wherein no man can work, Joh 9:4. We must up and be doing now with all possible diligence, because our doing-time will be done shortly and we know not how soon. But this we know that, if the work of life be not done when our time is done, we are undone for ever: "There is no work to be done, nor device to do it, no knowledge for speculation, nor wisdom for practice, in the grave whither thou goest." We are all going towards the grave; every day brings us a step nearer to it; when we are in the grave it will be too late to mend the errors of life, too late to repent and make our peace with God, too late to lay up any thing in store for eternal life; it must be done now or never. The grave is a land of darkness and silence, and therefore there is no doing any thing for our souls there; it must be done now or never, Joh 12:35.
"This is
an evil about all things that are done under the sun: that the same fate awaits
all Therefore the heart of man is full of evil; and madness is in their heart
while they live; and after that, they go to the dead. "Symmachus interprets this in his usual
clearer way, saying, "but even the heart of mankind is filled with
wickedness and impudence like their heart in life". But all of them succumb to death, for who is
able to continually live forever? The
Scripture has the same meaning regarding this.
I said a little earlier, that when both good and bad things happen
equally to everyone, there is no difference between good and bad, for we are
taken from this life by indiscriminate death.
Nonetheless we are filled with wrongdoings and impudence and wickedness,
and after all these trials in life we are suddenly taken by death and
afterwards we cannot consort with the living.
Or indeed it could mean this: since the same difficulties afflict both
the just and the unjust, men are therefore provoked to commit sins. Then after he has tried all things, which are
done in vain, while he is unknowing, he descends to the world of the dead. "For
he who is attached to all living has hope, a live dog is better than a dead
lion."
“Better” by far “is a living dog” in this problem “than a dead lion.” For a living saint may correct what had not been corrected by another who came before him.
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SUMMARY
Ecclesiastes 9:4 presents a profound and stark declaration on the inherent value of life, regardless of its perceived status, asserting its absolute superiority over the finality of death. Amidst Qoheleth's reflections on the common fate of all humanity and the apparent randomness of existence "under the sun," this verse introduces a glimmer of pragmatic hope tied directly to the state of being alive. It posits that as long as one is counted among the living, there remains potential, opportunity, and the capacity for experience, a state infinitely preferable to the utter cessation of being that death brings, irrespective of one's former achievements or societal standing.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Ecclesiastes 9:4 employs several potent literary devices to convey its profound message. The most prominent is Juxtaposition, specifically through the stark contrast presented between the "living dog" and the "dead lion." This creates a powerful Paradox, as it intentionally reverses conventional wisdom by asserting that a despised, lowly creature, simply by virtue of being alive, holds more intrinsic value than a once-majestic beast rendered utterly powerless by death. This Aphorism or Proverbial Statement uses concrete, relatable, and culturally resonant imagery to communicate a profound philosophical and theological truth about the value of existence. The use of Hyperbole in comparing the absolute lowest (a dog) to the absolute highest (a lion) further emphasizes the Preacher's point that life, in any form, is superior to death, in any form. The verse also utilizes Repetition of the word "living" (Hebrew: chay) to underscore the central theme of vitality and existence.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Ecclesiastes 9:4, while rooted in a pragmatic, "under the sun" perspective that acknowledges the limitations of human understanding and the pervasive reality of death, nevertheless carries significant theological weight. It implicitly affirms the intrinsic value of life as a precious gift from God, even amidst the apparent futility of human endeavor. The "hope" mentioned, though not explicitly eschatological in Qoheleth's immediate context, can be seen as a precursor to a deeper understanding of God's sovereignty over life and death, and the potential for divine intervention or purpose within the span of one's earthly days. It serves as a stark reminder that as long as there is breath, there is potential for repentance, for seeking God, for experiencing His grace, and for fulfilling His purposes—a potential that irrevocably ceases with death. This verse subtly challenges a worldview that might prioritize past achievements or worldly status over the present, divinely granted gift of existence itself.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Ecclesiastes 9:4 serves as a potent and sobering reminder to embrace and appreciate the profound, often overlooked, gift of life itself. In a world frequently preoccupied with status, achievement, and the relentless pursuit of fleeting glories, this verse reorients our perspective, asserting that the simple state of being alive, with all its attendant possibilities, is infinitely more valuable than any past triumph or esteemed position that has succumbed to death's finality. It challenges us to live with intentionality, recognizing that every breath is an opportunity—an opportunity to love more deeply, to learn more fully, to serve others more selflessly, to grow in wisdom, and to experience the world God has given us. It urges us not to despair in our present circumstances, no matter how humble or challenging they may seem, for as long as we are "joined to all the living," there is potential for change, for new beginnings, and for finding purpose. This verse calls us to seize the day, to invest our energies in what truly matters in the present moment, and to cherish the precious, finite time we have been granted, knowing that death brings an absolute end to all earthly opportunities for action, wisdom, and relationship.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does Ecclesiastes 9:4 suggest there is no afterlife or hope beyond death?
Answer: Ecclesiastes, particularly from Qoheleth's "under the sun" perspective, focuses primarily on the observable realities of earthly life and death. In this verse, the "hope" mentioned refers to the pragmatic possibilities, experiences, and opportunities available exclusively to the living, in stark contrast to the utter cessation of activity and consciousness that death brings in this world. While the Old Testament contains nascent ideas about an afterlife (e.g., Sheol), Qoheleth's emphasis here is on the finality of death in this life and its impact on human endeavors. The verse does not explicitly deny an afterlife but rather highlights the unique and irreplaceable value of present existence for all earthly pursuits and experiences. The New Testament, however, reveals a much fuller and more glorious picture of hope beyond the grave through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Ecclesiastes 9:4 emphasizes the pragmatic hope found in mere existence "under the sun," its profound assertion about the intrinsic value of life finds its ultimate and glorious fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The seemingly paradoxical statement that a "living dog is better than a dead lion" foreshadows the triumph of life over death, not just in a temporal sense, but eternally. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, the one who conquered death, rendering its sting powerless 1 Corinthians 15:55. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who, though "dead" on the cross, rose again, becoming the "firstfruits of those who are asleep" 1 Corinthians 15:20. Thus, the hope for the living is no longer merely for earthly experience, but for a new, eternal life found only in Him. Through Christ, even those who were spiritually "dead in trespasses and sins" can be made "alive together with Christ" Ephesians 2:1-5. The ultimate "better" reality is not just a living dog over a dead lion, but the living Christ triumphing over the grave, offering true, eternal hope and purpose to all who are "joined" to Him by faith.