:
1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. 2 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. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity. 7 Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart. 8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. 10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. 11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. 12 For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. 13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him. 15 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. 16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? 17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time? 18 It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. 19 Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. 20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. 21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: 22 For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. 23 All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. 24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? 25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness: 26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. 27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: 28 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. 29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
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[AD 270] Gregory of Neocaesarea on Ecclesiastes 7:1
For though a man should be by no means greatly advantaged by knowing all in this life that is destined to befall him according to his mind (let us suppose such a case), nevertheless with the officious activity of men he devises means for prying into and gaining an apparent acquaintance with the things that are to happen after a person's death. Moreover, a good name is more pleasant to the mind Proverbs 22:1 than oil to the body; and the end of life is better than the birth, and to mourn is more desirable than to revel, and to be with the sorrowing is better than to be with the drunken. For this is the fact, that he who comes to the end of life has no further care about alight around him. And discreet anger is to be preferred to laughter; for by the severe disposition of countenance the soul is kept upright The souls of the wise, indeed, are sad and downcast, but those of fools are elated, and given loose to merriment. And yet it is far more desirable to receive blame from one wise man, than to become a hearer of a whole chorus of worthless and miserable men in their songs. For the laughter of fools is like the crackling of many thorns burning in a fierce fire. This, too, is misery, yea the greatest of evils, namely oppression; for it intrigues against the souls of the wise, and attempts to ruin the noble way of life which the good pursue. Moreover, it is right to commend not the man who begins, but the man who finishes a speech; and what s moderate ought to approve itself to the mind, and not what is swollen and inflated. Again, one ought certainly to keep wrath in check, and not suffer himself to be carried rashly into anger, the slaves of which are fools. More over, they are in error who assert that a better manner of life was given to those before us, and they fail to see that wisdom is widely different from mere abundance of possessions, and that it is as much more lustrous than these, as silver shines more brightly than its shadow. For the life of man has its excellence not in the acquisition of perishable riches, but in wisdom. And who shall be able, tell me, to declare the providence of God, which is so great and so beneficent? Or who shall be able to recall the things which seem to have been passed by of God? And in the former days of my vanity I considered all things, and saw a righteous man continuing in his righteousness, and ceasing not from it until death, but even suffering injury by reason thereof, and a wicked man perishing with his wickedness. Moreover, it is proper that the righteous man should not seem to be so overmuch, nor exceedingly and above measure wise, that he may not, as in making some slip, seem to sin many times over. And be not audacious and precipitate, lest an untimely death surprise you. It is the greatest of all good to take hold of God, and by abiding in Him to sin in nothing. For to touch things undefiled with an impure hand is abomination. But he who in the fear of God submits himself, escapes all that is contrary. Wisdom avails more in the way of help than a band of the most powerful men in a city, and it often also pardons righteously those who fail in duty. For there is not one that stumbles not. Also it becomes you in no way to attend upon the words of the impious, that you may not become an ear-witness of words spoken against yourself, such as the foolish talk of a wicked servant, and being thus stung in heart, have recourse afterwards yourself to cursing in turn in many actions. And all these things have I known, having received wisdom from God, which afterwards I lost, and was no longer able to be the same. For wisdom fled from me to an infinite distance, and into a measureless deep, so that I could no longer get hold of it. Wherefore afterwards I abstained altogether from seeking it; and I no longer thought of considering the follies and the vain counsels of the impious, and their weary, distracted life. And being thus disposed, I was borne on to the things themselves; and being seized with a fatal passion, I knew woman— that she is like a snare or some such other object. For her heart ensnares those who pass her; and if she but join hand to hand, she holds one as securely as though she dragged him on bound with chains. And from her you can secure your deliverance only by finding a propitious and watchful superintendent in God; for he who is enslaved by sin cannot (otherwise) escape its grasp. Moreover, among all women I sought for the chastity proper to them, and I found it in none. And verily a person may find one man chaste among a thousand, but a woman never. And this above all things I observed, that men being made by God simple in mind, contract for themselves manifold reasonings and infinite questionings, and while professing to seek wisdom, waste their life in vain words.
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:1
The good name consists in a virtuous life. It is acquired with labor, effort and sweat. What, however, is pleasant in the moment oftentimes is gained without labor and one’s own effort.…Those who really make progress regarding their inner person and who lead a spotless life, they have a good name. This is better than ointment, better than pleasantness.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 196:22
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:1
Whoever does not focus attention on perishable goods and does not think highly of them but knows that “it is better to be with Christ after death” thinks that the day of death is better than the day of birth. The latter is the beginning of many evils; the former, however, the end and termination of evil.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 197:14
[AD 399] Evagrius Ponticus on Ecclesiastes 7:1
If the death by which the righteous die with Christ is praiseworthy because it separates the soul from evil and ignorance, then such a death is the opposite of the birth that unites the soul with evil and ignorance. Therefore, such a death is much more honorable than such a birth.

Source: SCHOLIA ON ECCLESIASTES 54:7.1
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:1
"How does it benefit man? For who knows what is good for man in this
life, all the days of his vain life, which he spends as a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him
under the sun? "When he says" "that man is ignorant of
his condition, and does not actually know whatever he seems to know and
discern, as if the truth of the matter is not seen, he does see however the
shadow and image as if through a mirror, and he cannot know what will come, or
escape his sin by talkativeness. He
should silence his mouth and believe that He who is written has come, and not
ask by what means, how much, or what kind of man he is that has come.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:1-2
"A good name is better than precious
ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. "Consider, he says, man, your short days since you will
cease to be quickly when your body gives out; fast longer, so that however
perfume delights your nostrils with its smell, in the same way posterity will
delight in all things to your name.
Symmachus interpreted this very clearly, saying, "a good name is
better than a perfume that smells pleasant". We must remember that it is the custom of the
Hebrews to call good perfume 'oil'. He
also says, "and the day of death
than the day of one's birth", this shows that it is better to die, and
no longer be troubled, or be in an unsteady condition of life, than sustain all
these things while being born into the world.
For in our death we know what we have been like, but when we are born we
cannot know what we will be like or do in life.
Since birth is also linked to the freedom of the spirit in the body, it
abolishes moral customs.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Ecclesiastes 7:2
If anyone wants to ascend, let him seek not the joys of the world or the pleasant things or the delights but whatever is filled with pain and weeping; for it is better to go into a house of sorrow than into a house of rejoicing. Indeed, Adam would not have come down from paradise unless he had been beguiled by pleasure.

Source: FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 1:3
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:2
Where there is mourning, there is no moral superficiality. Happiness and laughter are avoided; the calamity prohibits it. Sometimes we refrain from appearing happy out of regard for those who mourn and for those who experience harm. In the house of feasting, however, the opposite happens: Dances and songs bring reproof, since they indicate a disorderly life.…The “house,” however, signifies a condition or an attitude, not a location.… The one who goes to the house of mourning knows that everyone dies in the end. Once he knows that he has to die, he will not think about and dedicate his effort to owning something, if it is a possession that is lost in death such as wealth, reputation and honor.…
One can understand “the living” in the following way: one who lives according to God’s will. Those people were Abraham and his descendents.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 197:19-198:22
[AD 399] Evagrius Ponticus on Ecclesiastes 7:2
The final end of human beings is a state of blessedness. If the Lord in the Gospel calls those who mourn “blessed”—“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”—then Solomon quite rightly calls mourning the end of every human being, because those who live in that state of mourning are filled with an abundance of spiritual blessings.

Source: SCHOLIA ON ECCLESIASTES 55:7.2
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Ecclesiastes 7:2
“It is better,” we read, “to go into the house of mourning than into the house of laughter.” But, likely enough, you do not like the saying and want to evade it. Let us however see what sort of man Adam was in paradise, and what he was afterwards; what sort of man Cain was before, and what he was afterwards.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 16
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:3
Take the case that someone has subjects, for example, children or slaves. If he is angry with them and in a fury so that he limits the evil, then his anger is good, not anger as such, but the anger of a father over his child, of a guardian’s anger over his charge.…He calls that kind of anger good that prevents sins from becoming so big that punishment has to follow.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 199:22
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Ecclesiastes 7:3
Is it better to go where there is weeping, lamentation, and groans, and anguish, and so much sadness, than where there is the dance, the cymbals, and laughter, and luxury, and full eating and drinking? Yes, truly, [Solomon] replies. And tell me why it is so, and for what reason? Because, at the former place, insolence is bred; at the latter, sobriety. And when a person goes to the banquet of one who is more opulent, he will no longer behold his own house with the same pleasure, but he comes back to his wife in a discontented mood. In discontent he partakes of his own table and is peevish toward his own servants, and his own children, and everybody in his house, perceiving his own poverty the more forcibly by the wealth of others. And this is not the only evil. But he also often envies him who has invited him to the feast and returns home having received no benefit at all. But with regard to the house of mourning, nothing of this sort can be said. On the contrary, much spiritual wisdom is to be gained there, as well as sobriety. For when once a person has passed the threshold of a house which contains a corpse and has seen the departed one lying speechless, and the wife tearing her hair, mangling her cheeks, and wounding her arms, he is subdued; his countenance becomes sad. And every one of those who sit down together can say to his neighbor but this: “We are nothing, and our wickedness is inexpressible!” What can be more full of wisdom than these words, when we both acknowledge the insignificance of our nature and accuse our own wickedness and account present things as nothing? Giving utterance, though, in different words, to that very sentiment of Solomon—that sentiment which is so marvelous and pregnant with divine wisdom—“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” He who enters the house of mourning indeed weeps for the departed, even though he is an enemy. Do you not see how much better that house is than the other? For there, though he is a friend, he envies; but here, though he is an enemy, he weeps.

Source: HOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 15:5
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:3
"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 take it to his heart. "It is more useful to go to the rites of a funeral than
to the house where there is a party, since at the house of mourning we are
warned of our creator and of our mortality on account of seeing the dead
body. But in the happiness of a party,
even if we seem to have any fear, we lose it.
Symmachus interpreted the last verse by saying, "and he who lives,
will look back in his mind". There
is proof in these verses, in that God is seen to approve food and drink, but
not seen to prefer desire to all these things, with the result that many men
value them wrongly. But in comparison
with avarice and too much sparing, feasting is allowed in a small way, or
allowed to him, who enjoys his work completely every moment. For he had never preferred the sadness of
mourning to the enjoyment of a party, if he had thought at any moment to drink
and eat.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:4
"Anger is better than laughter, for through a sad face the heart is
improved. "Laughter weakens the mind, anger reproves
and corrects it. Both let us become
angry with ourselves when we sin, and let us get angry with others. Through the sadness of the face, even the
spirit becomes better, as Symmachus saw it.
And therefore "woe now to those who laugh, since they will
mourn." [Luc. 6, 25.]

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Ecclesiastes 7:4
Anger: That is, correction, or just wrath and zeal against evil.
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:5-8
For most people it seems to be right to avoid the critique of a wise man, especially if they like to sin. Whoever desires amusement and sin avoids the person who wants to hinder it. Whoever has no insight is pleased with flatterers, preferring flattery to critique. It is the characteristic of the wise man that he criticizes the one he loves.… The flatterers sing in a certain way. Even when they give ethical speeches, they want to make their audience happy instead of looking out for their best interests. Such song is a speech that gives joy, but a rebuke helps one to find the right way.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 202:2
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:5-8
Thorns that burn under a pot make loud crackling noises. This is like the laughing of the foolish. It makes noise and is crackling, but not because it educates the soul.… As the thorns produce noise when they as plants are burned under a pot, in the same way the laughter of the foolish comes out of a bad soul that is burning.… Thorns are earthly worries, shameful desires and uncurbed joys.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 203:3
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:5-8
The end of words is more likely to be good than their beginning.… A speech is given in order to actualize something.… Oftentimes someone who teaches has with patience led someone who is not highly intelligent to learning. He does not give up after the first or second admonition but tries to heal him in every case. Such a patient teacher is better than an arrogant one, or someone proud in spirit.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 204:22
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:5
"The
heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the
house of enjoyment. ""Blessed", says the Saviour,
"are the mourning, since they will be consoled". [Matth. 5, 5.] And Samuel mourned King Saul all the days of
his life [Cfr I Reg. 16.]
and Paul said he had mourned over those who did not want to repent their many
sins [Cfr II Cor. 12, 21.]. Therefore the heart of a wise man goes to the
house of such a man, who reproves himself when he is doing wrong, so that he
brings forth tears and causes himself to weep for his own sins; and he does not
go to the house of joy, where the learned man flatters and deceives, not
changing the listeners so they are together as one, but asking for praise and
applause from them. Such a teacher, who
is rich in speeches and words, is mourned, and being filled by his knowledge,
receives his consolation. Then the
following verses agree with this explanation too, because he says:

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:6-7
"It is
better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of
fools. For as the crackling of thorns
under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this too is vanity. "For it is better to be rebuked by a wise man, than to
be deceived by flattering praise.
Similar to this is the passage which says, "better are the wounds
of a friend, than the free kisses of an enemy" [Prov. 27, 6.]. Just as the sound of sharp thorns under the
pot gives out a harsh sound, so the words of a flattering teacher are not of
any use, or the worries of the world, which are interpreted as 'thorns', or the
sound of one who encourages his listeners, or of one who prepares them for the
fire which is to come. Let us look at
what Symmachus has to say about the passage that we have as "since just as
the sound…fool." Understanding the
meaning which we have already explained above, he says, 'for a man is bound in
chains by the voice of the ignorant".
This means that one listener is tied up to the word of such teachers,
while the chains of his sins restrain another.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:8
"Surely
oppression makes a wise man mad; and a gift destroys the heart. "Now see the wise man as if regarding profit, according
to that passage which says, "accuse the wise and he will love you" [Prov. 9, 8.]. Wise, or even having completed his training,
he knows no accusation, and is perturbed by no disaster. We should use this verse if we see disaster
befall a righteous and wise man, and he is perturbed by the unlawfulness of the
judgement, and in that case when God does not come to his mind readily. Instead of this though the Septuagint, and
Aquila and Theodotion interpret the phrase "destroys the heart" as "eutonias" "autou "that is 'his strength', or 'his vigour'. Symmachus says, "and "matthana" destroys his heart' (that is 'a
gift'), using the Hebrew word in his interpretation, and making the same
meaning as is written elsewhere: "gifts, too, blind the eyes of the
wise". [Deut. 16, 19.]

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:9
"Better
is the end of a thing than the beginning; "Perorations are better in speaking, than just the
introductory section. For worry comes to
and end in the former, and commences in the latter. Or it could even mean this: he who begins to
hear a speech, and goes to the teacher, is in first place. For indeed he who listens until the last is
consumed and complete in learning. But
this can also be understood in this way: while we are in this world, all that
we know is as a beginning; but when that age is completed, we will understand
everything as newest and completed. My
Hebrew tutor explained this passage together with the following verse as
follows: it is better for you to ponder the end of your business, than the
beginning, and be patient, rather than being seized by the frenzy of
impatience. We learn too from this
reading that there is no wisdom in men, although it is better to do than to
only say that you will do. And since,
when the talk had finished, the listener thinks over for himself what has been
said, and though he begins to speak, he has not yet understood what he can
learn from it. "And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in
spirit. "Since the heavenly one conceded to anger, saying,
"anger is better than laughter", lest we think anger is to be praised
in suffering, now he says that anger must be removed from deep down inside
us. For there he assigns anger instead
of correction in sinners, and learning in children. But here he checks
impatience. But patience is not only
necessary in difficult times, but also in happier times, in case we rejoice
more than we should. It seems to me that
he who is now called high in the spirit of the Gospel, is in contrast poor in
spirit, and is even blessed.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 435] John Cassian on Ecclesiastes 7:9
The deadly poison of anger has to be utterly rooted out from the inmost corners of our soul. For as long as this remains in our hearts and blinds with its hurtful darkness the eye of the soul, we can neither acquire right judgment and discretion nor gain the insight which springs from an honest gaze, or ripeness of counsel. Nor can we be partakers of life, or retentive of righteousness, or even have the capacity for spiritual and true light, “for,” says one, “mine eye is disturbed by reason of anger.” Nor can we become partakers of wisdom, even though we are considered wise by universal consent, for “anger rests in the bosom of fools.”

Source: INSTITUTES 8:1
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Ecclesiastes 7:9
When a person does not put up with being disregarded in this world, he tries to display what good points he may have. And so impatience leads him on to arrogance, and being unable to tolerate contempt, he ostentatiously boasts in advertising himself. Wherefore it is written, “Better is the patient man than the presumptuous.” Indeed, the patient person suffers any evil rather than that his hidden good qualities become known through the evil of ostentation. On the contrary, the arrogant person prefers that good should be attributed to him even falsely, rather than that he should suffer the slightest evil.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Ecclesiastes 7:9
When the peace of the mind is lashed with anger, torn and rent, as it were, it is thrown into confusion, so that it is not in harmony with itself and loses the force of the inward likeness. Let us consider, then, how great the sin of anger is, by which, while we part with mildness, the likeness of the image of the Most High is spoiled. By anger, wisdom is cast off, so that we are left wholly in ignorance of what to do and in what order to do it.

Source: MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 1:5.78
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Ecclesiastes 7:9
When anyone lacks patience about being looked down upon in this world, he tries to display any hidden good qualities he may have, and so through impatience is drawn on to arrogance. While he cannot bear contempt, he boasts ostentatiously in self-display. Therefore Scripture says, “Better is the patient than the arrogant.” Indeed, one who is patient chooses to suffer evil rather than have his hidden good qualities come to be known through the vice of ostentation. But the arrogant, on the contrary, prefers to have good attributed to him falsely, rather than to suffer the slightest evil.

Source: PASTORAL RULE 3:9.10
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:10
"Be not
hasty in your spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the lap of fools. "He does not grant here that anger should be tempered,
therefore he now says, "Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry"; but
that when anger is mad and new, it is more easily tempered because it is
dispersed easily and can be removed. And
since anger is linked to pride, and the desire for vengeance, he says it is
better and above suffering, than he who is exalted in his spirit, and now shows
the sign of foolishness, since however powerful or wise someone is esteemed, if
he is made angry he will seem foolish in his words: "for anger lies in the
lap of fools".

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:11
"Do not
ask,' what is the cause that the former days were better than these?' For you do not enquire wisely about
this. "Do not prefer the previous age to this one, since God
created both one and the other. Virtues
create good days for man, and vices make bad days. Do not say therefore that the days were
better in the time of Moses and Christ, than now they are. For even in that time there were more
disbelievers and their days were made wicked by this; now there are more believers,
about whom the Saviour said, "more blessed are they, who did not see or
believe" [Ioh. 20, 29.]. Or differently: thus you ought to live so
that the days that you live in are always better than those passed, lest you
begin to decrease little by little, it should then be said to you, "you
did run well, who hindered you that you should not have obeyed the truth?" [Gal. 5. 7.];
and again: "you who began in spirit are now consumed by flesh" [Gal. 3. 3.]. Or another meaning of this: do not say that
the times of old are better than now, those of Moses better than Christ, that
they were more lawful than full of grace.
For if you were to ask this, you would do it unwisely, not seeing how
much the Gospel differs from the Old Testament.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:12-13
"Wisdom
is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the
sun. For wisdom is a defence, and money
is a defence: but the advantage of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to
those that have it. "A wise man with riches has more glory than
just a wise man alone. For some men need
wisdom, some wealth, but he who is both wise and not rich is able to teach what
is good, but meanwhile he can't show what is to be sought. Therefore he says, since the protection of
wisdom is the protection of money, then just as wisdom protects, so too money
also protects. And lest he seem to
detract from wisdom, while he adds to it by good fortune, (for it is not in our
power to obtain riches, which often the unrighteous own in greater quantity),
he therefore shows wisdom to be greater, saying "but the advantage of
knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to those that have it." In that respect, he says, wisdom is greater
than riches, because without any wealth it preserves those who think themselves
rich. Certain scholars see this passage
in a different way: they say that he places heredity in place of good
association, by which we are the heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ. Therefore Ecclesiastes wants to teach how
much of a difference there is between those who merit seeing the sun (of
justice), and have wisdom by their good association, and those in contrast, who
without wisdom have only enthusiasm for vice and association. Since even David shows this, saying "the
intelligent shine out by their speech, as the shining bodies of the sky" [Dan. 12. 3.],
or as Theodotion interpreted this, "just as the brightness of the
firmament. Indeed those who wrote my
speeches are as the stars of the sky".
But we ought to take that protection of silver (or money) according to "anagoge [See footnote 50.]
"from which talents and coins are collected in the parables of the Gospels [Cfr Matth. 25,
14-23; Luc. 19. 12-25.],
just as when we were under the protection of wisdom and under the protection of
such money: "the sun does not burn us by day, nor the moon by night". [Ps. 120, 6.] But this can even be said to be true since
protection is our life on the earth: "the breath of our nostrils, the
anointed Christ our Lord of whom we said: under His shadow we should live among
the heathen". [Thren. 4, 20.] All of our protection in this life is like a
shade, or like wisdom, or as is said about money, until the day moves on and
the shadows move away. Symmachus
interprets this more clearly in his usual manner, saying, "just as wisdom
protects, so too money protects in a similar fashion". But the following verse openly encourages the
enthusiasm for knowledge.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:13
Even among the Greeks there were many opponents to those who claimed that the cosmos came into being by itself.… Since providence of necessity is concerned with the details and God is providence, his providence concerns the cosmos that he himself has created. Now admit even something else: God watches over the cosmos that he himself has created out of providence, so that it might go well.… God knows the reasons for everything that came into being, and he knows why they are hidden.… In no way do you have sufficient knowledge of God’s creations, if you take offence at them, because you are not reasonable. Watch God’s creatures! What for others is a reason for offence will be for you knowledge of the Creator and of the created.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 209:26
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:13
God does not make crooked by causing destruction but by showing that someone is crooked.… It is written, “Those who turn to crooked ways, the Lord will lead away together with those who have committed injustice.” It is not God himself who leads them away against their will together with those who have committed injustice, but he has shown that those who turn from the way after their own moral decision are such people.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 212:12
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:14
"Consider
the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he has made
crooked? "Symmachus translates this passage in this
way: "learn the word of God, because no one can correct what He has
ruined". That is he supplies from
the Holy Scriptures, or from thinking of the elements, to know and understand
those things, which are done; but not to ask the causes and reasons why one
thing is done in this way, or why it ought to have been done differently from
the way in which it has been done. For
the sake of this passage, if anyone should ask why God spoke to Moses in this
way: "who makes the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind, am I not
the Lord God?" [Ex. 4, 11.],
and if he should say, why are the blind, the deaf, the mute created in this
way, and others similar to these? This
passage must be seen in reference to
Psalm 17, in which it is said to the Lord: "You will be Holy with
the holy man, and with the wicked You
will err" [Ps. 17, 26-27.]. And it must be added that the Holy Lord is
with him, who is holy; and the wicked are with him, who was previously wicked
by his own will. This is similar also to
that which is written in Leviticus: "if the wicked came to me I will go to
them, wicked in my madness". [Lev. 26-27.] Even this can explain why God hardened the
heart of Pharaoh. For just as one and
the same quality of the sun melts wax and dries clay, and on account of each
one's constitution, both wax melts and clay dries; [Cfr. Lucr. De Rerum Natura VI 962/965; Verg. Ecl. VIII 80.; Hier. Epist. 120,10
-12. CSEL 55, p504,10.]
so too the one quality of the portents of God in Egypt softened the heart of
those who believed, and hardened that of the incredulous, who just as their
hardness and impatient heart, began to store up for themselves anger for the
day of anger from those portents, which they didn't believe, though yet they
saw them happen.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:15
There is an absolute righteousness and a righteousness that is only righteous for one.… A righteous person can get lost in what is only righteous for him. Those, however, who are really righteous … do not remain in what is righteous for them alone and do not trust in this as their own right. This is why he does not perish in absolute righteousness, as the psalmist says: “In your righteousness I will live.” Paul, for example, who was a great man who lived in Christ and for whom truth was revealed, said, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 213:23
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:15
"In the
day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also has
set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing
after him. "I have heard from a certain man in the
Church, who was thought to have a knowledge of the Scriptures, that these
verses are to be explained in this way: while you remain in the present world,
and while you are able to do good work, work hard so that afterwards you may be
without worry in the day of wickedness, that is the day of judgement, when you
will see others to be tormented. For
just as God made the present world, in which we can obtain for ourselves the
benefits of good work; so too he made the future age, in which no opportunity
will be given for us to do good work.
This man of the Church even seemed to convince those he was preaching
to, but to me there seems a different meaning to this, which Symmachus has
translated, saying, 'in the good day, be good; but be wary of the day of
wickedness'. All the same, God made this
world similar to the next, so that man should not be able to find that which he
complains against Him. Suffer both the
good things, he says, and the bad, as they happen to you in your life. And do not think that there is only the
nature of good or bad alone in the world, especially when the world itself consists
of opposites: hot and cold, dry and wet, hard and soft, dark and light, bad and
good. [Cfr Ovid, Meta. I.19-20.] But God made this ambivalence so that wisdom
might have a place, and it is found by choosing good and avoiding bad: man is
given free will, lest he argue that he has been made unfeeling, and stupid by
God. But God has made man so diverse
that man is unable to complain of his manner of being. At the same time this argument is to be taken
with the previous verses, in which he says 'who is able to correct what God has
done?'.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:16
Neither those who love too much nor those who hate, abide by the rule of truth. The former lie through love; the latter lie through hatred. It is right to place a bridle even on charity and to permit it freedom to roam only insofar as it does not rush headlong over a cliff. Scripture says, in Ecclesiastes, “Do not be righteous in excess, nor think yourself more than you are, lest perhaps you should be struck dumb.” Following this, I can say something similar. Do not love a man “with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with all your strength.” Do not love an angel “with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with all your strength.” In accord with the Savior’s words, keep this command in respect to God alone. For, he says, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with all your strength.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 25:6
[AD 395] Gregory of Nyssa on Ecclesiastes 7:16
No one can say that he has strayed from ignorance into some silly fancy of separating, locally, the supreme from that which is below, and assigning to the Father as it were the peak of some hill, while he seats the Son lower down in the hollows. No one is so childish as to conceive of differences in space, when the intellectual and spiritual is under discussion. Local position is a property of the material, but the intellectual and immaterial is confessedly removed from the idea of locality. What, then, is the reason why he says that the Father alone has supreme being? For one can hardly think it is from ignorance that he wanders off into these conceptions, being one who, in the many displays he makes, claims to be wise, even “making himself overwise,” as the Holy Scripture forbids us to do.

Source: AGAINST EUNOMIUS 1:14
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:16
"I have
seen all things in the days of my vanity: there is a just man, that dies in his
righteousness, and there is a wicked man that remains alive in his
wickedness. "Similar to this is what the Saviour says in
the Gospel: "he who finds his soul will lose it, and he who loses it on
account of me, will find it" [Matth. 10. 39.]. The Maccabees are seen to die on account of
their justice by the law and justice of God, and martyrs too, who shed their
blood for Christ. On the other hand,
those who at that time ate the flesh of pigs and sacrificed to idols after the
arrival of the Lord, they are seen to live in this world and to live long lives
on account of their wickedness. But it
is the endurance of God in secret which causes suffering in those who are not
holy, so that they have wickedness in their life, and not to visit sinners for
their crimes, and it is as if he saves for the sacrifice so that he can give to
the former eternal goodness, and to the latter eternal wickedness. The Hebrews suspect the righteous, who die
for their righteousness, the sons of Aaron, since while they think they live
righteously, they worship a foreign fire.
And they say Manasseh was impious and lived a long life on account of
his wickedness, for he then lived a long time in a long reign after having been
corrected in prison.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 500] Desert Fathers on Ecclesiastes 7:16-18
She also said, ‘The devil sometimes sends a severe fast which is too prolonged; the devil’s disciples do this as well as holy men. How do we distinguish the fasting of our God and King from the fasting of that tyrant the devil? Clearly by its moderation. Throughout your life, then, you ought to keep an unvarying rule of fasting. Do you fast four or five days on end and then lose your spiritual strength by eating a feast? That really pleases the devil! Everything which is extreme is destructive. So do not suddenly throw away your armour, or you may be found unarmed in the battle and easily captured. Our body is the armour, our soul is the warrior. Take care of both, and you will be ready for whatever comes.’

Source: The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:17
And as God promises to them that serve him truly, “I will fulfill the number of your days,” Abraham dies “full of days,” and David called on God, saying, “Take me not away in the midst of my days.” And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, “You shall come to your grave … like as a shock of corn comes in its season.” And Solomon confirming his words, says, “The souls of the unrighteous are taken away untimely.” And therefore he exhorts in the book of Ecclesiastes, saying, “Be not overmuch wicked, neither be hard: why should you die before your time?”

Source: DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT 14
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Ecclesiastes 7:17
One is victorious who hopes for the grace of God, not he who presumes upon his own strength. For why do you not rely upon grace, since you have a merciful Judge in the contest? “For the Lord is merciful and just, and our God shows mercy.” Mercy is mentioned twice, but justice once. Justice is in the middle, enclosed by a double wall of mercy. Sins superabound. Therefore let mercy superabound. With the Lord there is an abundance of all powers, for he is the Lord of hosts. Yet there is neither justice without mercy, nor without the exercise of mercy is there justice, for it is written, “Be not overjust.” What is above measure, you cannot endure, even if it is good. Preserve measure, that you may receive according to the measure.

Source: ON THE DEATH OF THEODOSIUS 25
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Ecclesiastes 7:17
He who endeavors to amend the faults of human weakness ought to bear this very weakness on his own shoulders, let it weigh upon himself, not cast it off. For we read that the Shepherd in the Gospel carried the weary sheep and did not cast it off. And Solomon says, “Be not overmuch righteous,” for restraint should temper righteousness. For how shall he offer himself to you for healing whom you despise, who thinks that he will be an object of contempt, not of compassion, to his physician?

Source: Concerning Repentance 1.1.2
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:17
"Do
not be too righteous, do not make yourself too wise: why destroy yourself? "If you should see a man who is harsh
and wild to the extent of sinning against his brothers, so that he pardons
neither the sinner in his speaking, or he who is slow on account of natural
slowness, know that this man is more righteous than is good. For when the Saviour teaches, saying "Do
not judge, so that you are not judged" [Luc. 6, 37.],
and let none be without sin, even if it was not his life at any given day, the
judgement of God is not ignorant of the weak state of man. Therefore do not be too righteous, since
accursed conduct in the presence of God carries both a great and a minor
burden. Philosophers have placed virtues
therefore in the middle, and everything which is either too much either above
or below, is thought to be at fault. [Cfr. Apuleius. Plat. 2, 5.] But he also says, "and do not ask too
much, lest you become confused", or "lest you be amazed". For he knows that our mind cannot understand
complete wisdom, (or that which is to be measured), and he says that we ought
to know the wisdom which must be measured in our mortality. Then even Paul asked of him that was able to
know more than man, saying, "why does he yet complain? For who has
resisted his will?" [Rom. 9, 19.] He replies, "O man, who are you that
reply to God?" [Ibid. 9, 20.],
and so on. If he had heard the causes of
the complaint from the apostle, he who is introduced while he is questioning,
by chance he would have been stupefied by numbness and would have felt useful
gratitude. Since it is a gift according to
that same apostle, which is of no use to him that receives it. The command "do not be too
righteous" [Cfr I Reg. 15.]
is interpreted by the Hebrew as being about Saul, who felt pity for Agag, whom
the Lord had commanded to be killed. But
even that servant from the Gospel whom the Lord had pardoned [Cfr. Matth. 18. 23-34.],
the Lord himself didn't want to pardon the servant, yet he can be used in this
verse because he was too righteous.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Ecclesiastes 7:17
Over just: Viz., By an excessive rigour in censuring the ways of God in bearing with the wicked.
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:18
"Do not
be too wicked, and do not be foolish: why should you die before your time? "When God says, "I do not want the death of the
dying, only let him return and live" [Ezek. 18, 32.],
it suffices to have sinned only once. We
ought to raise ourselves up after a catastrophe. For just like those who argue about worldly
matters, the swallow knows how to protect its young from poppy seeds, and
wounded roes seek wild marjoram to cure themselves. Then why are we ignorant that the cure of
repentance is proposed for sinners? But
he says, "do not delay in an world that is not yours". We know that Chore, Dathan, and Habiron, on
account of their uprising against Moses and Aaron, were suddenly eaten up by a
gap in the earth, and in emendation of others, many were judged before the day
of judgement even in their lifetime. [Cfr. Num. 16.] Therefore he says, "do not add sins to
sins, lest you cause God to punish you"

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Ecclesiastes 7:18
Be not overmuch wicked: That is, lest by the greatness of your sin you leave no room for mercy.
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:19
The inhabited world arises in no other way than in the wisdom of God. For “wisdom gives strength to the wise beyond ten rulers who live in the city.” “And the one who despises wisdom and instruction is miserable, and his hope empty, and his labors unprofitable, and his works useless,” says the Book of Wisdom ascribed to Solomon. Hence insofar as possible, since the inhabited world is set aright in the wisdom of God, let us ourselves desire that our inhabited world, which perhaps has fallen, be set aright. For this inhabited world has fallen whenever we went to the place of affliction. This inhabited world has fallen whenever “we sinned, did wrong, acted wickedly,” and it has need of being set aright.

Source: HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8:1.3
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:19
Look for the might of a general in his wisdom rather than in the size of his troops.… If a city has many mighty men but lacks wisdom, these cannot help the city. In a spiritual exegesis the world is called city, that is, the earthly realm around us. No one can live without harm, if he is not given divine wisdom. If wisdom does not help, the mighty ones cannot do anything, whether you mean angels or holy men. If wisdom does not help, the city will not be saved. One can also see the soul of every human being as a city. Even if one had a thousand earthly thoughts that could help a city, it cannot be helped if God’s wisdom is not sent down to help and to create and sustain order.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 219:8
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:19
"It is good
that you should take hold of this, and do not withdraw your hand; for he that
fears God shall come forth of them all. "It is good to do good to righteous men, but
also being kind to sinners is not wicked.
It is good to keep slaves faithful to you, but it is advised to do this
only with those who seek your employment.
Even he who fears God and copies his maker, who causes rain to fall over
both the righteous and the wicked, enjoys doing good to all without distinction. Another meaning of this is, because this life
changes daily with many wretched occurrences, as fortunate as unfortunate, the
spirit should be prepared for righteousness and should ask for the pity of God,
so that whatever happens, he suffers with a free conscience. For he who fears God is neither raised to
fortune, nor crushed by misfortune.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Ecclesiastes 7:19
Perhaps a person possesses no bread to extend as an alms to the needy, but still greater is what a person who has a tongue is able to give. It is more important to refresh a mind that will live forever with the food of the word than to satisfy with earthly food the stomach of a body that is going to die. Therefore, brethren, do not take from your neighbors the alms of the word. Paul says, “If we have sown for you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap from you carnal things?” “Do good to the just, and you shall find great recompense: and if not of him, assuredly of God.” “It is good that you should hold up the just, and from him withdraw not your hand, for he that fears God neglects nothing.”

Source: SERMON 8:5
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:20
And it is likely also that in countless other things demons delude us and influence us to act according to their will. And it is possible that, just as no one among us is “clean from defilement,” and there is no “just person on the earth who will do good and will not sin,” so also there is no one who has always been free of demons and has never fallen victim to their influence.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20:328
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:20
If you wish to recall some other of the saints, the word of Scripture replies to you, saying, “There is no one upon the earth who does good and sins not.” Therefore only Jesus rightly “has perfect hands”; who alone “does not sin,” that is, who has perfect and whole works of his hands.

Source: HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12:3.2
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:20-21
"Wisdom
strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. For there is not a just man on the earth,
that does good and does not sin. "Therefore wisdom strengthens the righteous,
and not even the aid of all the citizens of the city can help him, for although
someone may be righteous, yet while he is alive he is subject to vices and
sins, and he therefore needs greater protection. Another reading of this is: the ten who hold
power and are in the city are angels, who have arrived at the complete number
of 'denarii' and are here to help mankind.
But if anyone should consider different types of help, the aid of wisdom
is better, because that is the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ. For after the angels said, "we would
have protected Babylon yet it is not now protected, so let us leave it, and let
each one of us go out unto his own land" [Ier. 51, 9.]. Then the teacher of doctors himself came down
and healed us with a touch of His finger, we who were spattered with blood, and
wet with the blood of sinners, we who weigh out all our possessions against
healing. But He healed in that city
which is in that world, and 'strengthened in wisdom' or as the Septuagint says
'helped'. For it is given and added to
everyone who possesses it. But the man
who sins greatly is stuck in deep and needs more help: therefore Wisdom herself
came to his aid. Another meaning of this
verse is: above he had said that one should be kind to both the good and the
wicked: therefore someone was able to reply: though I want to be kind to all
men, I have not the power with which to do this. And a righteous man does not have such
riches, which normally come more abundantly to sinners. Therefore he now says, those whom you can't
help with money, help with advice and comfort them with solace. For one is more able to excel in these ways
than any of the greatest of potentates.
And you would be wise to do this, for the scale of justice is great, and
must decide for whom, how much, how long, and of what sort, help is given,
either with monetary support or with advice.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Ecclesiastes 7:20
The following is one of the many arguments that Pelagius uses in treating this subject: “Once more I repeat: I say that it is possible for a person to be without sin. And what do you say? That it is impossible for a person to be without sin? But I do not say,” he adds, “that there is a person without sin, nor do you say that there is not a person without sin. We are disputing about what is possible and impossible, not about what is and is not.” Next he notes that a number of the passages of Scripture which are usually invoked against them do not bear upon the question in dispute, namely, whether or not a person can be without sin: “For there is no one who is free from pollution,” and, “There is no one that does not sin,” and, “There is no just person on the earth,” and, “There is no one that does good.” “These and other similar texts,” he says, “apply to nonexistence, not to impossibility. By examples of this kind it is shown how some persons were at a given time, not that they could not have been something else. For this reason they are justly found to be guilty. For if they were as they were because they could not have been otherwise, then they are free from blame.”

Source: ON NATURE AND GRACE 8
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Ecclesiastes 7:20
Because the prophet says, “Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and in sin did my mother bring me forth,” no one coming into the world with sin can be sinless. That is why the same prophet says, “No one living shall be considered righteous in your sight,” and Solomon, “There is no righteous man on earth, who does good, and does not sin.”

Source: FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 39
[AD 735] Bede on Ecclesiastes 7:20
There are less serious sins about which it has been written that “there is not a righteous person on earth who does what is good and does not sin,” and, “No living person will be made righteous in your sight.”

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, 2 Peter 1:10
[AD 735] Bede on Ecclesiastes 7:20
The Lord himself gives us sure confidence of obtaining what we properly ask when he adds, “Therefore if you, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give his good Spirit to those who ask him?” His disciples were good, as far as human judgment can see. He calls them “evil” because there is surely no one in this life who is capable of being free from moral faults, as Solomon states when he says, “There is not a just person on earth, who does good and does not sin.”

Source: Homilies on the Gospels 2:14
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:22-23
"And do
not heed all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you. For often your own heart knows that you
likewise have cursed others. "Make sure to do only those things which have
been taught, and strengthened by the help of wisdom, prepare yourself for
either good or bad outcomes, and don't worry about what your enemies might say
about you, or what kind of reputation you have.
For just as a cautious man should not hear his servant complain about
him, so he should not want to hear what is said about him in his absence, (for
if he did this he would always be troubled and incensed to anger by the
muttering of the servant). Therefore it
is befitting for a wise man to walk with wisdom following him, and not to dwell
upon unfounded rumours. But he teaches
by another example that the righteous man ought not to worry what men say,
saying, 'just as your conscience knows what you have said about others, and
that you have often maligned others, so you ought to pardon others when they
think badly of you.' At the same time he
teaches that it is difficult to judge for one who has a rod in his eye, not to
speak about the rod of another.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 390] Gregory of Nazianzus on Ecclesiastes 7:23
Now the subject of God is harder to come at, in proportion as it is more perfect than any other, and is open to more objections, and the solutions of them are more laborious. For every objection, however small, stops and hinders the course of our argument and cuts off its further advance, just like people who suddenly check with the rein the horses in full gallop and turn them right around by the unexpected shock. Thus Solomon, who was the wisest of all whether before him or in his own time, to whom God gave breadth of heart, and a flood of contemplation, more abundant than the sand, even he, the more he entered into profundities, the more dizzy he became. And he declared the furthest point of wisdom to be the discovery of how very far away wisdom was from him.

Source: ON THEOLOGY, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 2 (28).21
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:24
Consider therefore how it is written in the book of Ecclesiastes, “I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who shall find it out?” [Consider] what is said in the Psalms, “The knowledge of you is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” And Solomon says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.” [Therefore] I frequently designed to stop and to cease writing; believe me, I did. But lest I should be found to disappoint you, or by my silence to lead into impiety those who have made enquiry of you and are given to disputation, I constrained myself to write briefly, what I have now sent to your piety.

Source: LETTERS TO MONKS 1:2
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Ecclesiastes 7:24
Even if all minds, in fact, should combine their researches and all tongues would concur in their utterance, never, as I have said, could anyone achieve a worthy result in this matter. Solomon, the wisest of all, presents this thought clearly to us when he says, “I have said: I will be wise; and it departed farther from me”; not that it really fled but because wisdom appears unattainable particularly to those to whom knowledge has been given in an exceptionally high degree by the grace of God.

Source: CONCERNING FAITH
[AD 390] Gregory of Nazianzus on Ecclesiastes 7:24
Who is it, who made all things by his Word, and formed man by his Wisdom, and gathered into one things scattered abroad, and mingled dust with spirit, and compounded an animal visible and invisible, temporal and immortal, earthly and heavenly, able to attain to God but not to comprehend him, drawing near and yet far off? “I said, I will be wise,” says Solomon, “but she was far from me beyond what is,” and, “Verily, he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.” For the joy of what we have discovered is no greater than the pain of what escapes us; a pain, I imagine, like that felt by those who are dragged, while yet thirsty, from the water, or are unable to retain what they think they hold, or are suddenly left in the dark by a flash of lightning.

Source: IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT, ORATION 2:75
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:24
What Ecclesiastes is saying is this: Before I turned my thoughts to ponder over God’s work, I was not aware of God’s magnificence. I said, I must have wisdom; that is, I must inquire into the nature of every cause; and wisdom withdrew farther away from me than it ever was before. By that I mean, formerly I was not in quest of wisdom because I was unaware of it, and afterwards, when I began to seek it, I could not find it.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 21 (PSALM 91)
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:24-25
"I have
proved all this by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me." "That
which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? "Just as is attested in the Book of Kings [Cfr. III Reg. 3. 4.]
he says that he sought wisdom more than other men, and tried to reach the
pinnacle, but the more he sought, the less he found, and in the midst of his
confusion, he was surrounded by the darkness if ignorance. But at another time, regarding him who was
learned in the Scriptures- the more he wanted to know, the more a greater
obscurity arose each day for him.
Another meaning of this is: he seems to mean that contemplation of
wisdom in this life is like looking in a mirror or at a picture; therefore if I
look at my face in the mirror in the future I'll think back to the way it used
to be, and then in the liquid pool I'll recognise that I differ greatly from
the way I used to be.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 435] John Cassian on Ecclesiastes 7:24
As far in it as the breath of the divine Spirit may have brought us, yet the vastness that opens out before our eyes is ever more immeasurable. In the words of Solomon, “It will become much farther from us than it was, and a great depth. Who shall find it out?” Therefore let us beseech the Lord that the fear of him and the love that cannot fail may remain fixed in us, making us wise in all things and keeping us ever unharmed from the devil’s missiles. For with these protections it is impossible for anyone to fall into the snares of death. -.
[AD 435] John Cassian on Ecclesiastes 7:24
As the breath of the Divine Spirit drives us further in, so is there an ever-widening and immeasurable vastness opened to us, reaching beyond the sight of our eye. As Solomon says, “It will become much further from us than it was, and a great depth. Who shall find it out?” Therefore let us pray to the Lord that both his fear and his love, which cannot fail, may continue steadfast in us, make us wise in all things, and ever shield us unharmed from the darts of the devil. For with these guards it is impossible for anyone to fall into the snares of death.

Source: CONFERENCE 8:28
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:26
Although a perfect apprehension of the truth is at present far removed from us by reason of the infirmity of the flesh, yet it is possible, as the Preacher himself has said, to perceive the madness of the impious, and having found it, to say that it is “more bitter than death.” Therefore for this reason, as perceiving this and able to find it out, I have written, knowing that to the faithful the detection of impiety is a sufficient information wherein piety consists. For although it is impossible to comprehend what God is, yet it is possible to say what he is not.

Source: LETTERS TO MONKS 1:2
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Ecclesiastes 7:26
“My heart took a circuit to know the joy of the impious man and to examine carefully and to seek wisdom and a mode of calculating and to know joy through the impious man and trouble and disquietude, and I find that it is bitterer than death”—not because death is bitter, but because it is bitter for the impious one. And yet life is bitterer than death. For it is a greater burden to live for sin than to die in sin, because the impious person increases his sin as long as he lives, but if he dies, he ceases to sin.

Source: DEATH AS A GOOD 7:28
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:26
In many passages of divine instruction, thoughts and mindsets are called “women” of those who have them, both in a positive and in a negative sense. So it is said, for example, “Sophia gives birth to a man’s insight,” and, “Your wife is like a good vine, your sons like offshoots of olive trees.” Out of this woman male offshoots emerge, nourishment for fire and light, since the blessing from these plants gives nourishment for fire and light. In the negative sense again it is said, “Do not pay attention to a bad woman; honey runs from the lips of every prostitute who makes your throat sweet only for a brief time. Later you will find it more bitter than bile.” … If you want to understand it in an allegorical sense the bad and frivolous thought is a temptation. It is sophistical and heretical; it is like an evil woman.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 227:7
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:26-27
"I
applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason
of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and
madness. And I find that woman is more
bitter than death, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands are as bands:
whoever pleases God shall escape her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. "The Septuagint here has: "I even applied my heart
that I should know". Symmachus has
interpreted this saying, 'I have looked into all things with my reasoning to
know, to distinguish and to find out.'
Since therefore Ecclesiastes had said above that he had tried to know
all wisdom and the more he sought it the more it eluded him, now he says even
that he sought out another thing in his wisdom, for wickedness precedes all
things in human affairs, and that affair is first and foremost in impiety,
stupidity, madness, and insanity. He
also says that he found woman to be the cause of all evil, since through her,
death came into the world and took the most prized spirits of men. And even for all adulterers, it is like there
is a coat of mail on their heart, the heart that makes the souls of adolescents
soar upwards. And when this happens to
the mind of a wretched lover, it pushes him into first position, and he is not
allowed to look back at his feet, but like a snare or noose it ensnares the
heart of a youth. 'For he has chains
around his wrists', which Aquila interpreted as being, 'for his hands are in
chains'. For he can convince, but he
doesn't have the strength and can't pull himself to those who are
unwilling. Those things destroy him, who
was righteous and good before God; but the sinner who has been captured will be
led down to his death. Let us not think
that Solomon held this opinion about women thoughtlessly, he speaks only those
things that he has experienced. For this
reason he fears God, since women have captured him. And these interpretations are very
literal. But according to the spiritual
understanding of this passage, either we should take every sin made in general,
and call it 'woman' and 'wickedness', for example, she who sits behind the façade
of woman in Zechariah above the talent of lead. [Cfr. Zech. 5, 7.] Or we can take woman to be the devil
metaphorically on account of effeminate men; or indeed idolatry, and so that we
might proceed more closely, the church or heretics, which calls the fool to
itself by reasoning, so that he receives stolen bread, and stolen water, the
false sacrament, and is led to be baptised in polluted water.

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:26
Solomon seems to me very wise in bestowing upon an indecent woman the face of every heresy and then saying about her that it is necessary to repudiate and to flee such a woman, “who is a hunter’s snare, and her heart is a net, and in her hands are bonds.” The good man before the face of God will be rescued from her and the sinner will be ensnared by her.

Source: LETTER 31:3
[AD 420] Jerome on Ecclesiastes 7:28-30
"Behold,
I have found this, says the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the
account. Which still my soul seeks, but
I have not found it. I have found one
man among a thousand, but one woman among all those I have not found. Only this
have I found: that God has made man righteous, but he has sought out many
inventions. "He says, "I found this", teaching
all things diligently, that by sinning little by little, and adding one crime
on top of another, we amass a great number of sins for ourselves. '"esebon"'
even, which all translate as "logismon"
in Greek, according to the ambiguity of the Hebrew language can be said by us
to be 'number', 'sum', 'account', and 'consideration'. But, he says, my spirit sought even this
question of whether woman is rightly found to be guilty. And although I found scarcely any men to be
good, thus so that only one from a thousand can be found, I couldn't even find
one woman to be completely good. For all
of them have led me not to virtue but to self-indulgence. And because man's heart is predisposed
towards wickedness from boyhood, and almost all of us offend God in some way,
in this failing of mankind, women are more prone to this fate. The famous poet says about this:
"inconstant and always changeable is woman" [Virg. Aen. 4. 569/70.]. And the apostle says, "always learning
yet never arriving at the knowledge of the truth" [II Tim. 3.7.]. But he does not condemn this nature as being
common to all mankind, or say that God the creator does evil things, because he
is the creator of these things, but he warns subtly those who are not able to
avoid evil, and says that we are created good by God; but he also says that
because we are left with our own free-will to deteriorate into a worse and
worse state through our own vices, while we seek greater things and contemplate
many things beyond our strength. Differently:
while I consider the reason behind each and every one of these verses, I have
found no thought, which is not perturbed from outside by wicked thoughts. But in a thousand men I have found one man,
who is made in the image of his creator; and not in a thousand of any kind, but
of one thousand "men". There is not a like number of women
corresponding to men. In the thousand,
those who have not been close to a woman have therefore remained the most pure. But all this must be taken as a
metaphor. In many though, who enthuse
and every day sweat in their thinking, scarcely can there be found one pure
thought, that is worthy of the name of man.
We can take thoughts for men though, and women for work, and say that
the thoughts of man can only be seen as pure with great difficulty. But since the body does work, it is always
mixed up with some fault. But instead of
that which we said above interpreting the Hebrew phrase, "one upon
another, so that a great accumulation is made" we could either say 'account',
or 'thought'; Symmachus interprets this more clearly, saying, "one upon
another makes an amount". And we
are accustomed to call this complete and neutral, which I sought and had wanted
to find. The Hebrews name this in the
case of females, just as in the phrase "I sought one from God, this I
ask" [Ps. 26, 4.],
in place of that which is one. [[lit. "pro eo quod est unum"]]

<h2>CHAPTER 8</h2>

Source: Commentary on Ecclesiastes
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Ecclesiastes 7:29
For [the soul] is made to see God and to be enlightened by him; but of its own accord in God’s stead it has sought corruptible things and darkness, as the Spirit says somewhere in writing, “God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.” Thus it has been then that people from the first discovered and contrived and imagined evil for themselves. But it is now time to say how they came down to the madness of idolatry, that you may know that the invention of idols is wholly due not to good but to evil. But what has its origin in evil can never be pronounced good in any point—being evil altogether.

Source: Against the Heathen 7:5-6
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Ecclesiastes 7:29
God has created human beings straightforward, that is, morally perfect without anything crooked or oblique. But they themselves found many thoughts.… They did not devise one thought but many. Evil, thus, is manifold.… There is only one single human form that makes a person like God, but there are many into which he can transform himself. If he is cunning, he has the face of a fox; if he shows a poisonous, dangerous face, he has the face of a snake; if he looks wild, he has the face of a lion; if his face is ungovernable, flattering and desiring pleasures, he has the face of a dog. Generally out of one human being and one form emerge a whole plurality of characters and forms. Thus it is the goal to get rid of all forms—even if some people do not share this opinion—in order to show that he has the face that God created.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 231:13
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Ecclesiastes 7:29
The reason that we, being bad, have a good Father is in order that we may not always remain bad. No bad person can make a good one. If no bad person can make a good one, how can a bad man make himself good? The only one who can make a good person out of a bad one is the one who is always good. “Heal me, Lord,” he says, “and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved.” Why do they say to me, silly people saying silly things, “You can save yourself if you want to”? “Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed.” We were created good by the good God, seeing that “God made man upright.” But by our own decision we became bad. We were able to change from good to bad, and we shall be able to change from bad to good. But it is the one who is always good that can change bad to good, because man, by his own will, cannot heal himself. You don’t look for a doctor to wound you; but when you have wounded yourself, you look for one to heal you.

Source: SERMON 61:2
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Ecclesiastes 7:29
Let us be displeased with ourselves when we sin, because sins displease God. And because we are not in fact without sin, let us at least be like God in this respect, that what displeases him displeases us. Now you are displeased with that in yourself which he also hates who made you. He designed and constructed you; but take a look at yourself and eliminate from yourself everything that does not come from his workshop. For God, as it says, “created man upright.”

Source: SERMON 19:4
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Ecclesiastes 7:29
There is also a good world consisting of people, but made so out of a bad one. The whole world, you see, if you take the world as meaning people, leaving aside world in the sense of heaven and earth and all things that are in them; if you mean people by world, then the whole world was made bad by the one who first sinned. The whole mass is vitiated in its root. God made man good; that is what Scripture says: “God made man upright, and they themselves have sought out many devices.”

Source: SERMON 96:6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Ecclesiastes 7:29
The Manichaeans deny that to a good man the beginning of evil came from free will; the Pelagians say that even a bad man has free will sufficiently to perform the good commandment. The Catholic church condemns both, saying to the former, “God made man upright,” and saying to the latter, “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

Source: AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS 2:2
[AD 449] Eznik of Kolb on Ecclesiastes 7:29
But because [God] knows that some humans act according to his will and some do not, for that very reason he proclaims the virtue of the one part in order to incite the others to a zeal for the good from the womb. In the same way too, concerning those others, he proclaims their worthlessness. It is not as if he creates one worthless from the womb, and another useful. And if such were the case, why would it be necessary to praise the worthy and to blame the worthless if he himself is the creator of worthiness and worthlessness? Thus one ought not to be held blameable for that worthlessness if he had created him so from the womb.And now it is clear that God’s saying before-hand, “Jacob I have loved and Esau have I hated” means that this one will become beloved by his conduct, and that one hateful.… As it also says elsewhere: “God made man upright, and they thought a thought of evil.”

Source: ON GOD 248
[AD 735] Bede on Ecclesiastes 7:29
Our struggle against the vices has not been naturally implanted in us by God our Father and Creator but is proved to have befallen us from our love of this world, which we preferred to our Creator. For God made human beings upright, and they have involved themselves in endless questions, as Solomon bears witness. Hence James also says, “Let no one, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not the instigator of evil, for he himself tempts no one. Each one, in fact, is tempted, drawn on and lured by his own concupiscence.”

Source: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, 1 John 2:16