5 It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise, than to hear the song of fools.
Let the righteous smite me, it is kindness; and let him reprove me, it is an excellent oil which my head shall not refuse: for yet my prayer also is [for them] in their calamities.
The ear that heareth the reproof of life shall abide among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul; but he that heareth reproof getteth sense.
They that sit in the gate talk of me, and [I am] the song of the drunkards.
Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; reprove a wise [man], and he will love thee.
A reproof entereth more deeply into him that hath understanding than a hundred stripes into a fool.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are profuse.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 7
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
Solomon had given many proofs and instances of the vanity of this world and the things of it; now, in this chapter,
Ecc 7:1-6
In these verses Solomon lays down some great truths which seem paradoxes to the unthinking part, that is, the far greatest part, of mankind.
Ecc 7:7-10
Solomon had often complained before of the oppressions which he saw under the sun, which gave occasion for many melancholy speculations and were a great discouragement to virtue and piety. Now here,
Ecc 7:11-22
Solomon, in these verses, recommends wisdom to us as the best antidote against those distempers of mind which we are liable to, by reason of the vanity and vexation of spirit that there are in the things of this world. Here are some of the praises and the precepts of wisdom.
Ecc 7:23-29
Solomon had hitherto been proving the vanity of the world and its utter insufficiency to make men happy; now here he comes to show the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make men miserable; and this, as the former, he proves from his own experience, and it was a dear-bought experience. He is here, more than any where in all this book, putting on the habit of a penitent. He reviews what he had been discoursing of already, and tells us that what he had said was what he knew and was well assured of, and what he resolved to stand by: All this have I proved by wisdom, v. 23. Now here,