Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit. BETTER IS THE SIGHT OF THE EYES ... Answer to , "What hath the wise more than the fool?" This is the advantage, "Better is the sight of the eyes (the wise man's godly enjoyment of present seen blessings) than the (fool's) wandering (literally, walking, ) of the desire;" i:e., vague, insatiable desires for what he has not (; ). It is better to make the best of what we have before our eyes, however small and humble it seem, than to wander into the clouds with our desires ...

7-12 A little will serve to sustain us comfortably, and a great deal can do no more. The desires of the soul find nothing in the wealth of the world to give satisfaction. The poor man has comfort as well as the richest, and is under no real disadvantage. We cannot say, Better is the sight of the eyes than the resting of the soul in God; for it is better to live by faith in things to come, than to live by sense, which dwells only upon present things. Our lot is appointed. We have what pleases God, and let that please us. The greatest possessions and honours cannot set us above the common events of human life. Seeing that the things men pursue on earth increase vanities, what is man the better for his worldly devices? Our life upon earth is to be reckoned by days. It is fleeting and uncertain, and with little in it to be fond of, or to be depended on. Let us return to God, trust in his me...

Verse Ecclesiastes 6:9. _BETTER_ IS _THE SIGHT OF THE EYES THAN THE WANDERING OF_ _THE DESIRE_] This is translated by the _Vulgate_, as a sort of adage: Melius est videre quod cupias, quam desiderare quod nescias, "It is better to see what one desires than to covet what one knows not." It is better to enjoy the present than to feed one's self with vain desires of the _future_. What we translate _the wandering_ _of desire_, מהלך נפש mehaloch nephesh, is the _travelling of the_ _soul_. What is this? Does it simply mean _desire_? Or is there any reference here to the state of _separate spirits_! It however shows the soul to be in a _restless state_, and consequently to be _unhappy_. If Christ dwell in the heart by faith, the soul is then at _rest_, and this is properly the rest of the peo...

Connect these verses with Ecclesiastes 6:2 : “All labor is undertaken with a view to some profit, but as a rule the people who labor are never satisfied. What advantage then has he who labors if (being rich) he is wise, or if being poor he knows how to conduct himself properly; what advantage have such laborers above a fool? (None, so far as they are without contentment, for) a thing present before the eyes is preferable to a future which exists only in the desire.” Ecclesiastes 6:8 WHAT - literally, what profit (as in Ecclesiastes 1:3). KNOWETH ... LIVING - i. e., “Knows how to conduct

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 6:1 Section 9. Koheleth proceeds to illustrate the fact which he stated at the end of the last chapter, viz. that the possession and enjoyment of wealth are alike the free gift of God. We may see men possessed of all the gifts of fortune, yet denied the faculty of enjoying them. Hence we again conclude that _wealth cannot secure happiness_. ECCLESIASTES 6:1 THERE IS AN EVIL WHICH I HAVE SEEN UNDER THE SUN. The writer presents his personal experience, that which has fallen under his own observation (comp. Ecclesiastes 5:13;...

BETTER [IS] THE SIGHT OF THE EYES THAN THE WANDERING OF THE DESIRE,.... By "the sight of the eyes" is not meant the bare beholding outward riches, as in Ecclesiastes 5:11; but the enjoyment of present mercies; such things as a man is in the possession of, and with which he should be content, Hebrews 13:5; and by "the wandering of the desire", the craving appetite and insatiable lust of the covetous mind, which enlarges its desire as hell, after a thousand things, and everything it can think of; such a mind roves through the whole creation, and covets everything under the sun: now it is better to enjoy contentedly things in sight and in possession, than to let the mind loose in vague desires, after things that may never be come at, and, if attained to, would give no satisfaction; this

CHAPTER 6 DISHEARTENING CONTRADICTIONS _ 1. Riches--Inability to enjoy them (Ecclesiastes 6:1)_ 2. Having All--Yet no fill of the soul (Ecclesiastes 6:3) 3. The sad ending wail (Ecclesiastes 6:10) Ecclesiastes 6:1. The first evil the wise searcher sees as a discouraging contradiction is, that God giveth a man riches, wealth, and honor so that he does not lack in anything whatever. But God does not give him the power to enjoy it, a stranger instead eats thereof. This makes impossible what he stated in the closing verses of the preceding chapter. The cherished desires of man

ECCLESIASTES 6. FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON WEALTH AND FATE. Parallel with the bitter experience of the avaricious man who loses his wealth is that of the rich and successful man whose cherished desires are unfulfilled. Having no keen satisfaction himself he yet hopes to see his son enjoy his acquisitions, but he is childless, or if he has the blessings of a large family (a hundred is just a round number) and a long life both highly prized by the Jews the children may disappoint him by their conduct and so fill his soul with sorrow instead of satisfying it with good, and he may even yet undergo the supreme dishonour of lacking interment. _Cf._ Jezebel (2 Kings 9:35) and Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:19), and many other references both in biblical and classical literature, especially the Greek legend of Antigone

BETTER. See note on Ecclesiastes 2:24. THE SIGHT OF. what is seen by. THE WANDERING OF. what is pursued by. THE DESIRE. soul. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13. No Art. VEXATION OF SPIRIT. See note on Ecclesiastes 1:14. SPIRIT. Hebrew. _ruach._ App-9,...

_Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire_ Literally, THAN THE WANDERING OF THE SOUL. The truth is substantially that embodied in the fable of "the dog and his shadow" and in proverbs like "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." To enjoy what we actually see, _i.e._present opportunities, however limited, is better than the cravings of a limitless desire, "wandering" at will through all the region of possibilities. In that wandering, there is once more the FEEDING UPON WIND. Perhaps, however, that sentence is passed with an intentional ambiguity, characteristic of the writer (see note on Ecclesiastes 6:9), upon the actual present enjoyment, as well as on the unsatisfied desire, or upon the bare fact that the former with its lower aims is better than the latter with its higher ones....