13 There is a painful evil I have seen under the sun: wealth kept for its possessor, for his evil.
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it `is' great on man: A man to whom God giveth wealth, and riches, and honour, and there is no lack to his soul of all that he desireth, and God giveth him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eateth it; this `is' vanity, and it `is' an evil disease.
and having heard these things, Jesus said to him, `Yet one thing to thee is lacking; all things -- as many as thou hast -- sell, and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, be following me;' and he, having heard these things, became very sorrowful, for he was exceeding rich.
`And it came to pass, that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the messengers to the bosom of Abraham -- and the rich man also died, and was buried; and in the hades having lifted up his eyes, being in torments, he doth see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,
And he said also unto his disciples, `A certain man was rich, who had a steward, and he was accused to him as scattering his goods; and having called him, he said to him, What `is' this I hear about thee? render the account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest not any longer be steward. `And the steward said in himself, What shall I do, because my lord doth take away the stewardship from me? to dig I am not able, to beg I am ashamed: -- I have known what I shall do, that, when I may be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me to their houses. `And having called near each one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first, How much dost thou owe to my lord? and he said, A hundred baths of oil; and he said to him, Take thy bill, and having sat down write fifty. `Afterward to another he said, And thou, how much dost thou owe? and he said, A hundred cors of wheat; and he saith to him, Take thy bill, and write eighty. `And the lord commended the unrighteous steward that he did prudently, because the sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of the light, in respect to their generation. and I say to you, Make to yourselves friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye may fail, they may receive you to the age-during tabernacles. `He who is faithful in the least, `is' also faithful in much; and he who in the least `is' unrighteous, is also unrighteous in much; if, then, in the unrighteous mammon ye became not faithful -- the true who will entrust to you? and if in the other's ye became not faithful -- your own, who shall give to you? `No domestic is able to serve two lords, for either the one he will hate, and the other he will love; or one he will hold to, and of the other he will be heedless; ye are not able to serve God and mammon.'
And he spake a simile unto them, saying, `Of a certain rich man the field brought forth well; and he was reasoning within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where I shall gather together my fruits? and he said, This I will do, I will take down my storehouses, and greater ones I will build, and I will gather together there all my products and my good things, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast many good things laid up for many years, be resting, eat, drink, be merry. `And God said to him, Unthinking one! this night thy soul they shall require from thee, and what things thou didst prepare -- to whom shall they be? so `is' he who is treasuring up to himself, and is not rich toward God.'
For a fool speaketh folly, And his heart doth iniquity, to do profanity, And to speak concerning Jehovah error, To empty the soul of the hungry, Yea, drink of the thirsty he causeth to lack. And the miser -- his instruments `are' evil, He hath counselled wicked devices, To corrupt the poor with lying sayings, Even when the needy speaketh justly. And the noble counselled noble things, And he for noble things riseth up.
There is who is scattering, and yet is increased, And who is keeping back from uprightness, only to want. A liberal soul is made fat, And whoso is watering, he also is watered.
If they say, `Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause, We swallow them as Sheol -- alive, And whole -- as those going down `to' the pit, Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses `with' spoil,
And the first-born saith unto the younger, `Our father `is' old, and a man there is not in the earth to come in unto us, as `is' the way of all the earth; come, we cause our father to drink wine, and lie with him, and preserve from our father -- a seed.' And they cause their father to drink wine on that night; and the first-born goeth in, and lieth with her father, and he hath not known in her lying down, or in her rising up. And it cometh to pass, on the morrow, that the first-born saith unto the younger, `Lo, I have lain yesterday-night with my father: we cause him to drink wine also to-night, and go thou in, lie with him, and we preserve from our father -- a seed.' And they cause their father to drink wine on that night also, and the younger riseth and lieth with him, and he hath not known in her lying down, or in her rising up. And the two daughters of Lot conceive from their father, and the first-born beareth a son, and calleth his name Moab; he `is' father of Moab unto this day; as to the younger, she also hath born a son, and calleth his name Ben-Ammi: he `is' father of the Beni-Ammon unto this day.
And also to Lot, who is going with Abram, there hath been sheep and oxen and tents; and the land hath not suffered them to dwell together, for their substance hath been much, and they have not been able to dwell together; and there is a strife between those feeding Abram's cattle and those feeding Lot's cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite `are' then dwelling in the land. And Abram saith unto Lot, `Let there not, I pray thee, be strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thy shepherds, for we `are' men -- brethren. Is not all the land before thee? be parted, I pray thee, from me; if to the left, then I to the right; and if to the right, then I to the left.' And Lot lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the whole circuit of the Jordan that it `is' all a watered country (before Jehovah's destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, as Jehovah's garden, as the land of Egypt,) in thy coming toward Zoar, and Lot chooseth for himself the whole circuit of the Jordan; and Lot journeyeth from the east, and they are parted -- a man from his companion;
Go, now, ye rich! weep, howling over your miseries that are coming upon `you'; your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten; your gold and silver have rotted, and the rust of them for a testimony shall be to you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye made treasure in the last days! lo, the reward of the workmen, of those who in-gathered your fields, which hath been fraudulently kept back by you -- doth cry out, and the exclamations of those who did reap into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth have entered;
Hearken, my brethren beloved, did not God choose the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the reign that He promised to those loving Him? and ye did dishonour the poor one; do not the rich oppress you and themselves draw you to judgment-seats; do they not themselves speak evil of the good name that was called upon you?
and those wishing to be rich, do fall into temptation and a snare, and many desires, foolish and hurtful, that sink men into ruin and destruction, for a root of all the evils is the love of money, which certain longing for did go astray from the faith, and themselves did pierce through with many sorrows;
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,