Ecclesiastes 4:9

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. TWO (ARE) BETTER THAN ONE. Two-opposed to "one" (). Ties of union, marriage, friendship, religious communion, are better than the selfish solitariness of the miser (). BECAUSE THEY HAVE A GOOD REWARD - advantage accrues from their efforts being conjoined. They afford one another help, protection, and society. The Talmud says, 'A man without a companion is like a left land without the right.'...

9-12 Surely he has more satisfaction in life, who labours hard to maintain those he loves, than the miser has in his toil. In all things union tends to success and safety, but above all, the union of Christians. They assist each other by encouragement, or friendly reproof. They warm each other's hearts while they converse together of the love of Christ, or join in singing his praises. Then let us improve our opportunities of Christian fellowship. In these things all is not vanity, though there will be some alloy as long as we are under the sun. Where two are closely joined in holy love and fellowship, Christ will by his Spirit come to them; then there is a threefold cord....

Verse Ecclesiastes 4:9. _TWO_ ARE _BETTER THAN ONE_] Married life is infinitely to be preferred to this kind of life, for the very reasons alleged below, and which require no explanation....

The spectacle of a prosperous man whose condition is rendered vain by his brotherless, childless isolation. Ecclesiastes 4:8 A SECOND - Any one associated or connected with him. Ecclesiastes 4:9 Compare a saying from the Talmud: “A man without companions is like the left hand without the right.”...

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

TWO [ARE] BETTER THAN ONE,.... The wise man takes occasion, from the solitariness Of the covetous man before described, to show in this and some following verses the preferableness and advantages of social life; which, as it holds true in things natural and civil, so in things spiritual and religious; man is a sociable creature, was made to be so; and it was the judgment of God, which is according to truth, and who can never err, that it was not good for man to be alone, Genesis 2:18. It is best to take a wife, or at least to have a friend or companion, more or less to converse with. Society is preferable to solitariness; conversation with a friend is better than to be always alone; the Targum is, "two righteous men in a generation are better than one;'' such may be helpful to each other in their counsels and comforts, and mutual aids and assistances in things tempora

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....

_Two are better than one_ The strain of moralising which follows indicates at least the revived capacity for a better feeling. As the DEBATER had turned from the restless strivings of the seeker after wealth to the simple enjoyment of the labouring man or even the sensuous pleasure of the indolent, so now he turns from the isolation of the avaricious to the blessings of companionship. Here at least, in that which carries a man out of himself, there is a real good, a point scored as "gain." Here also, over and above his own experience the Seeker may have been helped by the current thought of his Greek teachers, the κοινά τὰ φίλων of the proverb, or the lines of Homer, Σύν τε δύʼ ἐρχομένω, καὶ τε πρὸ ὃ τοῦ ἐνόησεν Ὅππως κέρδος ἔῃ• μοῦνος δʼ εἴπερ τε νοήσῃ, Ἀλλά τε οἱ βράσσων τε νόυς λεπτὴ δέ τε μῆτις. "When two together go, each for the other Is first to think what best will help his...

BECAUSE THEY HAVE A GOOD REWARD— _Because they have a better reward for their common labour._...