Ecclesiastes
Chapter 9
I have pondered all of this, and now I understand that the just, the wise, and all they do are in God’s hands. Man does not know whether hate or love is in store for him.
What is most senseless is that the same destiny awaits all—the virtuous and the wicked, the clean and the unclean, the one who sacrifices and the one who doesn’t. It is the same for the good man and the sinner, for the one who swears and the one who refrains from swearing.
The same fate comes to everyone: this is the evil that corrupts everything done under the sun. That is why man’s heart is full of evil and foolishness during his life, and his end is with the dead.
As long as he shares with the living, there is hope; a living dog is better than a dead lion.
The living, at least, know they will die, but the dead know nothing; neither do they await anything; the memory of them has faded.
Their love, hate, and jealousy have already faded, and they no longer share in all that happens under the sun.
Go, enjoy your bread with gladness and drink your wine joyfully; this proves God’s approval of your work.
Dress in white and perfume your hair.
Enjoy life with the wife you love throughout all the days of the meaningless life given to you by God under the sun, for this is your lot in life and the work you do under the sun.
Fulfill your projects while you are able, for among the dead, where you are going, there is no work, no planning, no knowledge, no wisdom.
I saw something else under the sun: the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the strong, nor does bread go to the wise nor riches to the intelligent; favor is not for the learned, for fortune and misfortune overtake them all.
For man is unaware of his time: just as fish get caught in treacherous nets and sparrows trapped in snares, man, like them, is struck by misfortune that suddenly befalls him.
Skill Is Better than Strength
I have considered another grave matter under the sun.
There was a small town with few residents. A king targeted it, laid siege, and built impressive siege works around it.
But a wise man in poverty was found, who saved the town with his wisdom. Yet, no one remembered the poor man.
So I said, “Better wisdom than heroism,” but the wisdom of the poor is often ignored, and his words go unheeded.
The words of the calm, wise are heard above the shouts of foolish rulers.
Wisdom is better than weapons.
Various Proverbs
One sinner can spoil a lot of happiness.
Commentaries
Human Destiny.
The themes addressed in Ecclesiastes are not new—work, the search for knowledge, the shared destiny of humans and animals, injustices, and so on—but the way they are presented groups them around human destiny, expressed in two different ways: 1. It is impossible to determine the destiny of human beings and creation—the fear of the Lord, which we already discussed in 7:1-14, 18. 2. The same fate awaits everyone. The conclusion he reaches, as found in 9:7-10, is identical to that expressed in the previous section and elsewhere: enjoy everyday activities.
Among all the topics discussed, death is the most emphasized in this section. In 9:5, Qohelet agrees with the traditional teaching, which states that death is a place without hope, “sheol,” darkness (Nm 16:30-33; 1 Sm 28:8-14; Is 14:9-11; Ps 88:12; Job 10:21ff). He differs from some of his contemporaries, likely precursors of Dan 12:2 and Isa 26:19, whose beliefs ultimately won out, for example, that the righteous would receive a reward after death.
By this point in the book, we are already familiar with Ecclesiastes’ perspective. We see again that his reflections are not lacking in common sense, nor are they disconnected from reality. The inability to know people’s destinies, death that levels everyone and seems to destroy everything, and the fact that justice is not always rewarded—at least on this earth—are some of his conclusions. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of his teaching is the idea that even the wisdom handed down from ancient times does not influence his observations and conclusions. Hasn’t religion, in its many forms, historically been a factor that has clouded the true image and experience of God?
Skill Is Better than Strength.
A clear example of irony is this short passage, in which Qohelet contrasts the popular wisdom of proverbs with real experience. For him, as for other late Old Testament texts such as Sirach 13:23, truth is actually related to power, and it is this reality that he critiques with irony and scorn.
The parable in verses 14 and following may or may not be historical. It should, instead, be understood—like on other occasions—as a way of expressing his teaching.
Interestingly, we still use the proverb that gives this section its title very often. Does it express our desire to find wisdom? Ecclesiastes also seeks wisdom and appears to see it in simple displays of recognition and social esteem. We will need to define the terms “wisdom” and “wise” more clearly, as he himself does, without falling into the error of associating them with strength or power.
Various Proverbs.
The most distinctive feature of the wisdom texts in the Old Testament is that they are full of proverbs that, in most cases, are grouped without following a single theme, as if the most important thing is that they are sayings of the wise, regardless of whether they are systematically ordered.
Ecclesiastes shares this same fate, and this new section exemplifies it. The topics covered are very diverse: mistakes and successes, the mindset of the wise and the fool, relationships with authorities, and injustice in public service. In fact, if we removed 10:5-7, we could say that this text could belong to the book of Proverbs or any other classic Old Testament wisdom literature. Let’s look at some examples: we find echoes of 10:4 in Proverbs 8:2-5; 10:13 aligns with Proverbs 18:6-7; the powerless boy of 10:16 is mentioned in Isa 5:11; 10:20b is an existing proverb, and a similar one appears in the wisdom of Ahikar, a Mesopotamian text from the 6th century B.C.
In the Old Testament, there is a belief that the wise are those who, among many other qualities, have been able to gather and create numerous proverbs, which express wisdom gained from experience. Qohelet provides a good example of this in this section.
Reading this section, we realize our duty to deepen our understanding of life, not to merely expand our knowledge, but to become more sensitive to appreciating God’s ways throughout history.