Ecclesiastes 4:13

Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. BETTER (IN RESPECT TO CONDITION; NOT MORAL CHARACTER) (IS) A POOR AND A WISE CHILD THAT AN OLD AND FOOLISH KING. The "threefold cord" of social ties suggests the subject of civil government. In this case, too, he concludes that kingly power confers no lasting happiness. The "wise" child, though a supposed case of Solomon, answers, in the event foreseen by the Holy Spirit, to Jeroboam, then a poor but valiant youth, once a "servant" of Solomon and () appointed by God, through the prophet Ahijah, to be heir of the kingdom of the ten tribes about to be rent from Rehoboam. The "old and foolish king" answers to Solomon himself, who had lost his wisdom, when, in defiance of two warnings of God ...

13-16 People are never long easy and satisfied; they are fond of changes. This is no new thing. Princes see themselves slighted by those they have studied to oblige; this is vanity and vexation of spirit. But the willing servants of the Lord Jesus, our King, rejoice in him alone, and they will love Him more and more to all eternity....

Verse 13. _BETTER_ IS _A POOR AND A WISE CHILD_] The _Targum_ applies this to _Abraham_. "Abraham was a _poor child_ of only _three_ years of age; but he had the spirit of prophecy, and he refused to worship the idols which the _old foolish king_ - Nimrod - had set up; therefore Nimrod cast him into a furnace of fire. But the Lord worked a miracle and delivered him. Yet here was no knowledge in Nimrod, and he would not be _admonished_." The _Targum_ proceeds:...

These verses set forth the vanity of earthly prosperity even on a throne. Opinion as to their application is chiefly divided between considering them a parable or fiction like that of the childless man in Ecclesiastes 4:8 : or as setting forth first the vicissitudes of royal life in two proverbial sayings Ecclesiastes 4:13, and then Ecclesiastes 4:15, the vicissitudes or procession of the whole human race, one generation giving place to another, Which in its turn will be forgotten by its successor. On the whole, the first appears to have the better claim. Ecclesiastes 4:13

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 destroy it. ECCLESIASTES 4:1 First of all, he adduces the oppression of man by his fellow-man. ECCLESIASTES 4:1 SO I RETURNED, AND CONSIDERED ALL THE OPPRESSIONS THAT ARE DONE UNDER THE SUN. This is equivalent to, "again I saw," as Ecclesiastes 4:7, with a reference to the wickedness i

BETTER [IS] A POOR AND A WISE CHILD THAN AN OLD AND FOOLISH KING,.... The wise man proceeds to show the vanity of worldly power and dignity, in the highest instance of it, which is kingly; and, in order to illustrate and exemplify this, he supposes, on the one hand, a person possessed of royal honour; who has long enjoyed it, is settled in his kingdom, and advanced in years; and who otherwise, for his gravity and dignity, would be venerable; but that he is foolish, a person of a mean genius and small capacity; has but little knowledge of government, or but little versed in the arts of it, though he has held the reins of it long in his hand; and, which is worst of all, is vicious and wicked: on the other hand, he supposes one that is in his tender years, not yet arrived to manhood; and so may be thought to be giddy and inexperienced, and therefore taken but little notice of; and especiall...

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 (Ecclesiastes 4:8) 4. Concerning popularity (Ecclesiastes 4:13) Ecclesiastes 4:1. He observes that the world is filled with oppressions. This connects with the statement made in the previous chapter, (verse 16). Criticism declares in connection with this passage that it could not have been written by

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 (Ecclesiastes 4:7), and a paragraph on a young king's popularity (Ecclesiastes 4:13). ECCLESIASTES 4:1. Man's inhumanity to man awakens Qoheleth's compassion; THEY HAD NO COMFORTER must refer in both cases to the oppressed; the words are repeated for the sake of emphasis....

POOR. straitened in means, not able to profit others. Hebrew. _misken._ Not the same as in Ecclesiastes 4:14. Supposed to be. later Hebrew word, but. derivative of it is found in Deuteronomy 8:9. See App-76....

_Better is a poor and a wise child_ Better, YOUNG MAN. The words are general enough but the ingenuity of commentators has sought for examples in history, which the writer, according to the varying theories as to his date, may have had in his thoughts. Such, _e.g._as Abraham and Nimrod, Joseph and Pharaoh, David and Saul (all these are named in the _Midrash Koheleth_, see _Introduction_, ch. vi.), Joash and Amaziah, Cyrus and Astyages, the high priest Onias and his nephew Joseph (circ. b.c. 246 221, see Joseph. _Ant_. xii. 4, and Note on next verse), or Herod and his son Alexander. None of these identifications are altogether satisfactory, and it is quite possible that the writer may simply have uttered a general statement or may have had in view some events of which we have no record. In Wis 4:8-9 we have a more eloquent utterance of the same thought, "Honourable age is not that which st...