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The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

Ecclesiastes 4:4-6

ECCLESIASTES—NOTE ON Ecclesiastes 4:4 Much of what is achieved by human ability stems from a man’s envy of his neighbor. Here the Preacher focuses on the vanity that comes to those who make such striving their main goal in life. On the other hand, if a man folds his hands and refuses to work, he ruins himself.

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See also Ecclesiastes 4:4-6 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Ecclesiastes 4:4. _FOR THIS A MAN IS ENVIED_] It is not by injustice and wrong only that men suffer, but through _envy_ also. For if a man act uprightly and properly in the world, he soon becom...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    EVERY RIGHT WORK - Rather, every success in work. FOR THIS ... - i. e., “This successful work makes the worker an object of envy.” Some understand the meaning to be, “this work is the effect of the r...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 4 OBSERVATIONS OF DIFFERENT WRONGS _ 1. Concerning oppressions (Ecclesiastes 4:1)_ 2. Concerning envy of fools and the rich (Ecclesiastes 4:4) 3. Concerning the miser (Ecclesiast

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    ECCLESIASTES 4. A GLOOMY SURVEY. The chapter falls into four parts, which treat respectively of oppression (Ecclesiastes 4:1), rivalry (Ecclesiastes 4:4), isolation amounting to self-torture (Ecclesia...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    TRAVAIL. toil, as connected with trouble, sorrow. Not the same word as in Ecclesiastes 1:13; Ecclesiastes 2:23; Ecclesiastes 2:26;...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _I considered all travail, and every right work_ The "right work," as in ch. Ecclesiastes 2:21, is that which is DEXTEROUS and successful, without any marked reference to its moral character. Men exul...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    2. Keep your motive for work pure. Ecclesiastes 4:4-6 TEXT 4:4-6 4 And I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too i...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. EVERY RIGHT WORK ... FOR THIS A MAN IS ENVIED - ra...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    4:4 success (i-8) Or 'skilfulness,' as ch. 2.21....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    VICISSITUDES OF LIFE. 'OH, THE PITY OF IT!' 1-3. The mass of human suffering and the absence of pity are such that better off are the dead and still more the unborn. It is not only through God's ord...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    RIGHT] RV 'skilful,' RM 'successful.' FOR THIS.. NEIGHBOUR] RM 'it cometh of a man's rivalry with his neighbour.' Effort is stimulated by competition, but then what man has gained by toil is marred by...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE TEACHER SEARCHES FOR THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ CHAPTER 4 This chapter contains several subjects. 1. PEOPLE WHO SUFFER – ECCLESIASTES 4:1-...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    RIGHT WORK. — Rather, _skilful._ (See Note on Ecclesiastes 2:21.)...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וְ רָאִ֨יתִֽי אֲנִ֜י אֶת ־כָּל ־עָמָ֗ל וְ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    SECOND SECTION The Quest Of The Chief Good In Devotion To The Affairs Of Business Ecclesiastes 3:1 - Ecclesiastes 5:20 I. IF the true Good is not to be found in the School where Wisdom utters her vo...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    IT IS RENDERED HOPELESS BY THE BASE ORIGIN OF HUMAN INDUSTRIES. Ecclesiastes 4:4 This stinging sense of the miserable estate of his race has, however, diverted the Preacher from the conduct of the ma...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    DEVOTION TO BUSINESS SPRINGS FROM JEALOUS COMPETITION: Ecclesiastes 4:4 (a) Let us glance once more at the several symptoms we have already heard him discuss, and consider whether or not they accord...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    AND BY HUMAN INJUSTICE AND PERVERSITY. Ecclesiastes 3:16; Ecclesiastes 4:1 But not only are our endeavours to find the "good" of our labours thwarted by the gracious, inflexible laws of the just God...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    From this general survey the preacher returned to examine the condition of the beings whom he had described as being no better than the beasts. He looked out upon them, and saw them in suffering, and...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Again, I considered all labour, and every (d) right work, that for this a man is envied by his neighbour. This [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit. (d) The more perfect that the work is, the more...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Industries, or Hebrew, "righteous actions." If one be poor, he is in distress; if rich, he is exposed to envy; so that all is vanity. (Calmet)_...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. (4) Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is...

  • James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

    _A DISAPPOINTING WORLD_ ‘Vanity and vexation of spirit.’ Ecclesiastes 4:4 Among the examples in proof of the imperfection and inconstancy of earthly happiness which the Preacher communicates in the...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 1 THROUGH 12. The Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the converse of the Book of Proverbs. (see NOTE TO PROVERBS below) It is the experience of a...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    AGAIN I CONSIDERED ALL TRAVAIL, AND EVERY RIGHT WORK,.... The pains that men take to do right works. Some apply themselves, with great diligence and industry, to the study of the liberal arts and scie...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit. Ver. 4. _That for this a man is envied of his neig...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Again I considered all travail_ Hebrew כל עמל, _all the labour, toil_, or _trouble_, which men undertake or undergo; _and every right work_ All the worthy designs of virtuous men; _that for this a ma...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Again, I considered all travail and every right work, the prosperity coveted by men, the source and motive of so much of the oppression found in the world, THAT FOR THIS, namely, for his apparent succ...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    PERSONAL MISFORTUNES...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    EVERY RIGHT WORK: _ Heb._ all the rightness of work FOR THIS A MAN IS ENVIED OF HIS NEIGHBOUR: _ Heb._ this is the envy of a man from his neighbour...

  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

    "AND. HAVE SEEN THAT EVERY LABOR AND EVERY SKILL WHICH IS DONE IS THE RESULT OF RIVALRY BETWEEN. MAN AND HIS NEIGHBOR. THIS TOO IS VANITY AND STRIVING AFTER WIND." "is done is the result of rivalry...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    4-6 Solomon notices the sources of trouble peculiar to well-doers, and includes all who labour with diligence, and whose efforts are crowned with success. They often become great and prosperous, but...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    EVERY RIGHT WORK; all the worthy designs and complete works of wise and virtuous men. IS ENVIED OF HIS NEIGHBOUR; instead of that honour and recompence which he deserves, he meets with nothing but env...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Ecclesiastes 4:4 saw H7200 (H8804) toil H5999 skillful H3788 work H4639 man H376 envied H7068 neighbor H7453 v

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    CHAPTER 4 THE DREADFULNESS OF OPPRESSION. GUIDANCE ON LIVING. This chapter begins with considering the dreadfulness of oppression and then continues with thoughts on living, giving both good and bad...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE (ECCLESIASTES 4:4). Having all to briefly considered the oppression that was in the world, which has left him feeling that it was better if they had never been born, he no...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 3:1 A profound gloom rests on the second act or section of this drama. It teaches us that we are helpless in the iron grip of laws which we had no voice in making; that we often lie at th...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Discontent and impatience because of the oppressions and iniquities of life. CHARACTERS: Solomon. CONCLUSION: The world is full of trouble. By reason of man's perversity, he is ever distur...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Ecclesiastes 4:2. _Wherefore I praised the dead more than the living,_ who are robbed, fleeced, and exposed to incessant afflictions, from oppression and war. Solomon alludes to extreme cases, such as...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour._ AN OLD PORTRAIT OF MODERN MEN Here is a portrait, drawn by a man who lived thousands of years...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— ECCLESIASTES 4:5. EATETH HIS OWN FLESH.] Accomplishes his own ruin by indolence, exhausts his fortune, preys upon himself like one mad with hunger. _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 4:1 Section 5. Koheleth proceeds to give further illustrations of _man_'_s inability to be the architect of his own happiness_._ _There are many things which interrupt or des...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So I returned, and I considered all of the oppressions that are done under the sun: and the tears of those that are oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 John 3:12; Acts 7:9; Ecclesiastes 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:21;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Right work — All the worthy designs of virtuous men. Envied — Instead of honour, he meets with envy and obloquy....

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