14 or those riches perish by some evil circumstance, and if he have begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand.
Jehovah killeth, and maketh alive; he bringeth down to Sheol, and bringeth up. Jehovah maketh poor, and maketh rich, he bringeth low, also he lifteth up: He raiseth up the poor out of the dust; from the dung-hill he lifteth up the needy, To set [him] among nobles; and he maketh them inherit a throne of glory; For the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and he hath set the world upon them.
He hath swallowed down riches, but he shall vomit them up again: ùGod shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall kill him. He shall not see streams, rivers, brooks of honey and butter. That which he laboured for shall he restore, and not swallow down; its restitution shall be according to the value, and he shall not rejoice [therein]. For he hath oppressed, hath forsaken the poor; he hath violently taken away a house that he did not build. Because he knew no rest in his craving, he shall save nought of what he most desired. Nothing escaped his greediness; therefore his prosperity shall not endure. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits; every hand of the wretched shall come upon him. It shall be that, to fill his belly, he will cast his fierce anger upon him, and will rain it upon him into his flesh. If he have fled from the iron weapon, the bow of brass shall strike him through. He draweth it forth; it cometh out of his body, and the glittering point out of his gall: terrors are upon him. All darkness is laid up for his treasures: a fire not blown shall devour him; it shall feed upon what is left in his tent. The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him. The increase of his house shall depart, flowing away in the day of his anger. This is the portion of the wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by ùGod.
Let his sons be fatherless, and his wife a widow; Let his sons be vagabonds and beg, and let them seek [their bread] far from their desolate places; Let the usurer cast the net over all that he hath, and let strangers despoil his labour; Let there be none to extend kindness unto him, neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children;
-- before those [days] were, when one came to a heap of twenty [measures], there were but ten; when one came to the vat to draw out fifty press-measures, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the work of your hands; and ye [turned] not to me, saith Jehovah.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust spoils, and where thieves dig through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust spoils, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
Solomon, in this chapter, discourses,
So that if we can but learn out of this chapter how to manage the business of religion, and the business of this world (which two take up most of our time), so that both may turn to a good account, and neither our sabbath days nor our week-days may be lost, we shall have reason to say, We have learned two good lessons.
Ecc 5:1-3
Solomon's design, in driving us off from the world, by showing us its vanity, is to drive us to God and to our duty, that we may not walk in the way of the world, but by religious rules, nor depend upon the wealth of the world, but on religious advantages; and therefore,
Ecc 5:4-8
Four things we are exhorted to in these verses:-
Ecc 5:9-17
Solomon had shown the vanity of pleasure, gaiety, and fine works, of honour, power, and royal dignity; and there is many a covetous worldling that will agree with him, and speak as slightly as he does of these things; but money, he thinks, is a substantial thing, and if he can but have enough of that he is happy. This is the mistake which Solomon attacks, and attempts to rectify, in these verses; he shows that there is as much vanity in great riches, and the lust of the eye about them, as there is in the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life, and a man can make himself no more happy by hoarding an estate than by spending it.
Ecc 5:18-20
Solomon, from the vanity of riches hoarded up, here infers that the best course we can take is to use well what we have, to serve God with it, to do good with it, and take the comfort of it to ourselves and our families; this he had pressed before, ch. 2:24; 3:22. Observe,