Ecclesiastes 7: Better Than

"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth" (7:1). In Hebrew the first line is a play on sound: tov shem mi-shemen tov, "better a name than good oil." Perfumed oil was luxury and celebration; a good name is what outlasts it. The second line is the shock: the day of death is better than the day of birth, because at death a life's name is complete.

"It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart" (v. 2). "Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (v. 3). The wise heart is in the house of mourning; the fool's heart in the house of mirth (v. 4). "For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool" (v. 6): in Hebrew, the sirim (thorns) crackle under the sir (pot), loud, quick and soon gone.

"Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart" (v. 7). "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit" (v. 8). "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this" (v. 10). Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but wisdom "giveth life to them that have it" (v. 12). "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other" (vv. 13–14).

"All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?" (vv. 15–17). "He that feareth God shall come forth of them all" (v. 18). "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (v. 20). And do not take to heart every word spoken, "lest thou hear thy servant curse thee": you know you have cursed others too (vv. 21–22).

"All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me" (v. 23). Wisdom is "far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?" (v. 24). He sought the reason of things and the folly of wickedness (v. 25) and found "more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her" (v. 26). "Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found" (vv. 27–28). "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions" (v. 29).

Houses of mourning

Ancient Israelites mourned the dead with weeping, dirges, sackcloth, dust on the head and fasting, often for seven days, with neighbors coming to the mourners' house (Genesis 50:10; 2 Samuel 1:11–12; 3:31–35; Jeremiah 16:5–7 mentions the "house of mourning," beit marzeach, and the "house of feasting" together). Professional mourning women were hired (Jeremiah 9:17–18). A feast-house (beit mishteh) was where banquets and weddings were held (Esther 1:5; Judges 14:10). Ecclesiastes 7:2 sets the two side by side.

Perfumed oil

Fine oils scented with myrrh, spikenard, balsam or cinnamon were luxuries for festivals, guests and burials (Psalm 133:2; Amos 6:6; Mark 14:3). Small perfume juglets are common finds in Iron Age and Persian-period Judah, and the En-Gedi oasis was later famous for its balsam industry. A good name (shem tov) was a person's reputation, legacy and memory, which mattered more than any fragrance.

7:16: "Be not righteous over much"

Three main readings: (1) a warning against self-righteousness, rigid perfectionism or pretended piety (many Jewish and Christian commentators; the Targum applies it to excessive severity in judgment); (2) a warning against moral calculation, the belief that more righteousness guarantees more reward, which 7:15 has just refuted; (3) a pragmatic "golden mean" (some compare Greek ideas of moderation), which critics think comes too close to tolerating sin. Verse 18 ("he that feareth God shall come forth of them all") and verse 20 ("there is not a just man upon earth… that sinneth not") frame the saying: no one can achieve total righteousness, and the fear of God, not a moral surplus, is the way through. The verse is not permission for calculated wrongdoing; verse 17 warns against wickedness in the same breath.

7:26–28: what does Qoheleth say about women?

Verse 26 describes "the woman whose heart is snares and nets": in the language of Proverbs (2:16–19; 5:3–6; 7:6–27) this is a particular kind of woman, the seductress who leads to death, not all women. Verse 28 is harder: among a thousand people (adam, "human being") Qoheleth found one, "but a woman among all those have I not found." Readings include: (1) a misogynistic generalization typical of ancient male wisdom literature, to be named honestly; (2) Qoheleth quoting a common saying in order to reject it, since 7:29 immediately says God made humankind (adam, men and women) upright and they (plural) sought schemes; (3) a statement about the speaker's own failed search ("which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not"), not about women in general. Whatever the original intent, the verse records one man's experience in a world where women were largely excluded from the scribal circles he moved in; it is not a biblical teaching that women are morally inferior, and elsewhere Ecclesiastes counsels life with "the wife whom thou lovest" (9:9).

7:27: a feminine verb

In 7:27 the Hebrew reads amerah qohelet, "says Qoheleth," with the verb in the feminine form; elsewhere Qoheleth takes masculine verbs (1:2; 12:8). Qoheleth is grammatically a feminine participle (like other titles of office: sofereth, Ezra 2:55; pokhereth, Ezra 2:57), which may explain it. Most scholars, however, re-divide the letters as amar ha-qohelet, "says the Qoheleth," exactly as in 12:8; the consonants are the same, only the word division differs. The Greek and Latin simply have "says Ecclesiastes." Either way, verse 27 is another place where a third-person voice briefly frames Qoheleth's words.

Romans 3 and 7:20

"There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (7:20) is close to Solomon's prayer, "there is no man that sinneth not" (1 Kings 8:46). Paul's "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10) is usually traced to Psalm 14:1–3 (Psalm 53:1–3), whose wording it mainly follows; some scholars think the opening words echo the Greek of Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ouk estin dikaios). That echo is possible, not proven.

Qumran

The fragment 4Q109 (mid-2nd century BC) is reported to preserve parts of 7:1–10 and 7:19–20. It is the earliest physical evidence for these sayings. Reported small differences from the Masoretic Text must be checked in DJD XVI before they are printed (EC-C03).