Get Ready
Who is the oldest person you know personally, or who is the oldest person in your family? How well do you know this person? What have you learned from this person? How do you relate to this person? How “old” do you see yourself these days?
The Word
7A good name is better than precious ointment,
and the day of death, than the day of birth.
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting;
for this is the end of everyone,
and the living will lay it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.
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 to hear the song of fools.
6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of fools;
this also is vanity.
7 Surely oppression makes the wise foolish,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning;
the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit.
9 Do not be quick to anger,
for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
12 For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to the one who possesses it.
13 Consider the work of God;
who can make straight what he has made crooked?
14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them.
15 In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evil-doing. 16 Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself? 17 Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both.
19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city.
20 Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.
21 Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you; 22 your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others.
23 All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? 25 I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness. 26 I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.
27 See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum, 28 which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. 29 See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes. NRSV
Get into the Word
1. What other book of the Bible does the first part of this chapter remind you of? [See Notes]. Why do you think the author used this style here? What is the general theme of these sayings?
2. What advice does the writer give in these verses? How do you respond to the advice? Which seems the most important to you? Why do you feel this way?
3. What does the author conclude about life? About death? About living? About money? About wisdom? About God? Why does the writer reach this conclusion?
4. What does the writer describe in the second part of the chapter? What does he conclude about behavior as a result of this finding? How do you respond to his suggestions?
5. What does the author say about wisdom in this section? About sin?
6. What was the writer trying to accomplish? How well did he succeed? Why did he end as he did? What did he discover about wisdom and “folly?” Where else is this image used, [see Notes]?
7. What is the author’s conclusion? What was his goal? How hard did he search? What did he find? How do you feel about his conclusion? Why?
Consider
Have you tried to figure out why your life is the way it is? What conclusions did you reach? How has God helped you relax and trust him for your future? How has that worked for you?
Notes . . .
7:1. Precious ointment — Old Testament writers used this as a symbol for reputation, as well as joy and prosperity. Solomon says it’s important to maintain a good reputation throughout your life.
7:2-14. Better . . . — Solomon urges the reader to seriously consider the brief time we have in this world in the next thirteen verses, (which are really a collection of proverbs about the brevity of our lives) and concludes that this is how to gain wisdom. David expressed the same thought in Psalm 90: The days of our lives are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of you anger? Your wrath is as great as the far that is due you, [10-12].
7:6. Crackling of thorns — thorn bushes make a lot of noise when they are thrown on a fire, but they give very little heat and burn only a short time. David compared burning thorns to swarming bees, [Ps 118:12].
7:13. Make straight . . . crooked — Solomon advises us to accept life as it is (“the way God does things”) because we can neither change nor figure out why God has done something a certain way.
7:14. One as well as the other — so hard times are not a sign of God’s displeasure any more than prosperity is a sign of God’s favor, and we will not discover any pattern or rationale in this life.
7:15. Seen everything — Solomon
acknowledges the seeming contradictions in life (good people dying young and evil people living long). So he encourages us to be moderate: don’t depend on our righteous behavior (which is impossible anyway, see verse 20) to give us a long life, and don’t ignore what we know is right just because someone else apparently “got away with” bad behavior. Solomon still believed in God’s judgment [3:17].
7:19. An echo of Proverbs 21:22.
7:23. All this . . . was far from me — Solomon repeats his goal from 1:6, but acknowledges his failure to always “be wise.”
7:26. Woman who is a trap — Solomon repeats his image of “folly” or wickedness from Proverbs 1-9, and reaches the same conclusion: only the “wise” or morally upright person will escape her wiles.
7:28. I have not found — Solomon was looking for people “who are pleasing to God,” [v. 26].
One man . . . but a woman — “Man” in this sentence is the Hebrew “adam” which means humankind, while “woman” is a metaphor for a subset of “humans” in this poetic construction: I might find one in a thousand; no, it’s even less than that.
7:29. But they have devised many schemes — God did not cause this situation, “they” – the Hebrew means both men and women – were created virtuous but turned and followed their own “schemes.”
Memory Verse
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools, [Eccl 7:5]
Next Lesson
Obey the King and enjoy yourself — Ecclesiastes 8
