Ecclesiasteschapter 8

Speaks with:Ecclesiastes 3×5 Ecclesiastes 2×4 Ecclesiastes 5×3 Ecclesiastes 10×2 Ecclesiastes 9×2 Job 14×2

Summary

Chapter summary

'Who is as the wise man?… a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine.' Keep the king's command; there is a time and judgment for every purpose, though the misery of man is great upon him: no man hath power over the day of death. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil; 'yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God.' There is a vanity done on earth: righteous men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked. And man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun, though a wise man think to know it.

Context

Poetry · Solomon — Ecclesiastes overview

A. 1–9 Who Is as the Wise Man? Keep the King's Command
B. 10–17 Sentence Not Executed Speedily — and God's Work Past Finding Out

The outline

A.Who Is as the Wise Man? Keep the King's Commandvv. 1 to 9
Read vv. 1 to 9 →
B.Sentence Not Executed Speedily — and God's Work Past Finding Outvv. 10 to 17
Read vv. 10 to 17 →

The world behind this chapter

Ecclesiastes 8

When

The reign of Solomon · c. 940 BC

Where

The royal court, where a word from the throne is final

Who first heard it

Subjects and officials living under absolute royal power

The history

"I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God." Officials and subjects swore loyalty to the throne with an oath sworn in God's name. Breaking it was not merely disloyalty; it was perjury before God. That is why the chapter grounds obedience to a king in an oath rather than in the king's virtue.

"Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?" There was no appeal above the throne and no constitution behind it. "Go not out of his sight; stand not in an evil thing" is advice for a courtier: do not storm out of the room, and do not join a conspiracy.

"There is no discharge in that war" uses conscription language. Armies were raised by levy, and while the Law listed a few exemptions — a new house, a new vineyard, a new wife — once you were in the field there was no leaving. The writer applies it to the day of death, from which no exemption exists at all.

"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Ancient justice was slow and personal, dependent on witnesses coming forward and elders convening. Delay was the standard experience of anyone waiting for a wrong to be righted.

What it meant to them

The chapter names out loud the thing that most troubled devout hearers: there are just men who receive what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who receive what the just deserve. It does not explain it away.

What it offers instead is a stubborn confidence — "it shall be well with them that fear God" — held alongside an admission that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun, however hard he labours to seek it.

Sources cited

John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Ecclesiastes 8. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

Study this chapter

Ecclesiastes 34 verses
- Ecclesiastes 3:1To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
- Ecclesiastes 3:11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.
- Ecclesiastes 3:12I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and do good while they live,
- Ecclesiastes 3:17I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”
- Read Ecclesiastes 3 →
Ecclesiastes 24 verses
- Ecclesiastes 2:14The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.
- Ecclesiastes 2:16For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!
- Ecclesiastes 2:23Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.
- Ecclesiastes 2:24Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.
- Read Ecclesiastes 2 →
Ecclesiastes 53 verses
- Ecclesiastes 5:8If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.
- Ecclesiastes 5:13There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,
- Ecclesiastes 5:18Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of life that God has given him—for this is his lot.
- Read Ecclesiastes 5 →
Ecclesiastes 102 verses
- Ecclesiastes 10:4If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.
- Ecclesiastes 10:14Yet the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming, and who can tell him what will come after him?
- Read Ecclesiastes 10 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Ecclesiastes 92 verses
- Ecclesiastes 9:5For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.
- Ecclesiastes 9:12For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
- Read Ecclesiastes 9 →
Job 142 verses
- Job 14:2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
- Job 14:5Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,
- Read Job 14 →
Daniel 41 verse
- Daniel 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Read Daniel 4 →
Ecclesiastes 61 verse
- Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
- Read Ecclesiastes 6 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.

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