Ecclesiastes 3:16

And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. THE PLACE OF JUDGMENT ... WICKEDNESS WAS THERE. Here a difficulty is suggested. If God foreorders the succession of events, why are the wicked allowed to deal unrighteously in the place where injustice ought least of all to be?-namely, "the place of judgment;" where judges give sentence as representatives of God (2 Chronicles 19:6; ; ; )....

16-22 Without the fear of the Lord, man is but vanity; set that aside, and judges will not use their power well. And there is another Judge that stands before the door. With God there is a time for the redressing of grievances, though as yet we see it not. Solomon seems to express his wish that men might perceive, that by choosing this world as their portion, they brought themselves to a level with the beasts, without being free, as they are, from present vexations and a future account. Both return to the dust from whence they were taken. What little reason have we to be proud of our bodies, or bodily accomplishments! But as none can fully comprehend, so few consider properly, the difference between the rational soul of man, and the spirit or life of the beast. The spirit of man goes upward, to be judged, and is then fixed in an unchangeable state of happiness or misery. It is as certai...

Verse 16. _THE PLACE OF JUDGMENT_, THAT _WICKEDNESS_ WAS _THERE_] The abuse of power, and the perversion of judgment, have been justly complained of in every age of the world. The following paraphrase is good: - "But what enjoyment can our labours yield, When e'en the _remedy_ prescribed by heaven To cure disorders proves our deadliest bane? When God's vicegerents, destined to protect The weak from insolence of power, to guard Their lives and fortunes, impious robbers turn? And, or by force or fraud, deprive of both?---- To what asylum shall the injured fly...

That great anomaly in the moral government of this world, the seemingly unequal distribution of rewards and punishments, will be rectified by God, who has future times and events under His control Ecclesiastes 3:16. As for people, they are placed by God, who is their teacher, in a humble condition, even on a level with inferior animals, by death, that great instance of their subjection to vanity Ecclesiastes 3:18, which reduces to its original form all that was made of the dust of the ground Ecclesiastes 3:20. And though the destinies of man and beast are different, yet in our present lack of knowledge as to God’s future dealing with our spirits...

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 3:1 Section 4. In confirmation of the truth that man's happiness depends upon the will of God, Koheleth proceeds to show how _Providence arranges even the minutest concerns; that man can alter nothing, must make the best of things as they are, bear with anomalies, bounding his desires by this present life._ ECCLESIASTES 3:1 The providence of God disposes and arranges every detail of man's life. This proposition is stated first generally, and then worked out in particular by means of antithetical sentences. In Hebrew manuscripts and most printed texts Ecclesiastes 3:2 are arranged in two parallel col

AND MOREOVER I SAW UNDER THE SUN THE PLACE OF JUDGMENT,.... Courts of judicature, where judges sit, and, causes are brought before them, and are heard and tried; such as were the Jewish sanhedrim, of which the Midrash and Jarchi interpret it; [THAT] WICKEDNESS [WAS] THERE, wicked judges sat there, and wickedness was committed by them; instead of doing justice they perverted it; condemned the righteous, and acquitted the wicked; and oppressed the widow, fatherless, and stranger, whose cause, being just, they should have defended. So the Targum, "in which lying judges condemn the innocent.'' Well does the wise man say he saw this "under the sun", for there is nothing of this kind above it; nor approved of by him that is above it; AND THE PLACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, [THAT] INIQUITY [WAS] THERE; this signifies the same as before, only it is expressed in different words. The Midrash and Jarch...

2. FURTHER RESULTS OF THE SEARCH CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The times of man under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1)_ 2. When then is the good? (Ecclesiastes 3:12) 3. Concerning judgment and the future (Ecclesiastes 3:16) Ecclesiastes 3:1. There is a time for everything. Twenty-eight “times” are mentioned, beginning with the time of birth and ending with the time for peace. Everything has a fixed time: Life-death; seeding-harvesting; killing-healing; breaking-down building-up; weeping-laughing; mourning-dancing, etc. These are the times of the entire race; that is what human life

MAN NO BETTER THAN THE BEASTS. Ecclesiastes 3:16. Both in the administration of the law and the observances of religion, wickedness is prevalent; righteousness is here equivalent to piety. Ecclesiastes 3:17 is the insertion of the orthodox glossator; Qoheleth does not regard God as vindicating the godly. Ecclesiastes 3:18 links on to Ecclesiastes 3:16; the corruption already alluded to is God's way of showing that man, despite his vaunt of intelligence, is really on a level with the beasts. They share the same breath, and when it leaves them, the same end, death. Note...

UNDER THE SUN. See note on Ecclesiastes 1:1. WICKEDNESS. lawlessness. Hebrew. _rasha'._ App-44. INIQUITY. Same word as "wickedness" above. Figure of speech _Epizeuxis_ (App-6)....

_I saw under the sun the place of judgment_ The Hebrew gives slightly different forms of the same noun, so as to gain the emphasis, without the monotony, of iteration, where the A.V. has the needless variation of "wickedness" and "iniquity." Either word will do, but it should be the same in both clauses. We enter on another phase of the seeker's thoughts. The moral disorder of the world, its oppressive rulers, its unjust judges, its religious hypocrisies, oppress him even more than the failure of his own schemes of happiness. In part the feeling implies a step out of selfishness, sympathy with the sufferers, the perception of what ought to be, as contrasted with what is, and therefore an upward step in the seeker's progress. In the "place of judgment" we may see the tribunal where justice is administered: in that of "righteousness" the councils, secular, or, it may be, ecclesiastical, in...