Ecclesiastes 7:27

Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: THIS HAVE I FOUND - namely, what is stated in the previous part of the book (cf. , "All this"), and summed up in , "Lo, this only have I found" (COUNTING) ONE BY ONE - by comparing one thing with another; literally, '(putting) one thing to another' (Maurer). Or else, 'one by one: one after the other,' To investigate a subject thoroughly we should, like Solomon, take up only one part of it at a time and thoroughly sift it, and then similarly take up another part, and so consecutively until we have thoroughly examined the whole. ACCOUNT - a right estimate...

23-29 Solomon, in his search into the nature and reason of things, had been miserably deluded. But he here speaks with godly sorrow. He alone who constantly aims to please God, can expect to escape; the careless sinner probably will fall to rise no more. He now discovered more than ever the evil of the great sin of which he had been guilty, the loving many strange women, 1 Kings 11:1. A woman thoroughly upright and godly, he had not found. How was he likely to find such a one among those he had collected? If any of them had been well disposed, their situation would tend to render them all nearly of the same character. He here warns others against the sins into which he had been betrayed. Many a godly man can with thankfulness acknowledge that he has found a prudent, virtuous woman in the wife of his bosom; but those men who have gone in Solomon's track, cannot expect to find one. He tra...

Verse 27. COUNTING _ONE BY ONE_] I have gone over every particular. I have compared one thing with another; man with woman, his wisdom with her wiles; his strength with her blandishments; his influence with her ascendancy; his powers of reason with her arts and cunning; and in a _thousand_ men, I have found _one_ thoroughly upright _man_; but among _one thousand_ women I have not found _one such_. This is a lamentable account of the _state_ _of morals_ in Judea, in the days of the wise King Solomon. Thank God! it would not be difficult to get a _tithe_ of _both_ in the same number in the present day. The _Targum_ gives this a curious turn: - "There is another thing which my soul has sought, but could not find: a man perfect and innocent, and without corruption, from the days of Adam until _Abraham_ the just was born; who was found faithful and upright among the thousand kings who came...

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 7:1 Ecclesiastes 12:8.—Division II. DEDUCTIONS FROM THE ABOVE-MENTIONED EXPERIENCES IN THE WAY OF WARNINGS AND RULES OF LIFE. ECCLESIASTES 7:1 Section 1. Though no man knows for certain what is best, yet there are _some practical rules for the conduct of life which wisdom gives_._ _Some of these Koheleth sets forward in the prov

BEHOLD, THIS HAVE I FOUND,.... That a harlot is more bitter than death; and which he found by his own experience, and therefore would have it observed by others for their caution: or one man among a thousand, Ecclesiastes 7:28; (SAITH THE PREACHER); of which title and character see Ecclesiastes 1:1; it is here mentioned to confirm the truth of what he said; he said it as a preacher, and, upon the word of a preacher, it was true; as also to signify his repentance for his sin, who was now the "gathered soul", as some render it; gathered into the church of God by repentance; [COUNTING] ONE BY ONE, TO FIND OUT THE ACCOUNT; not his own sins, which he endeavoured to reckon up, and find out the general account of them, which yet he could not do; nor the good w

PART II. CHAPTER S 7-12 1. The Good Advice of the Natural Man, Discouragement and Failure CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The better things (Ecclesiastes 7:1)_ 2. The anomalies (Ecclesiastes 7:15) 3. The strength of wisdom, yet none perfect (Ecclesiastes 7:19) 4. The worst thing he found (Ecclesiastes 7:23) Ecclesiastes 7:1. All had been tested by the royal searcher; all was found out to be vanity and vexation of spirit. Darkness, discouragement, uncertainty and despai

PROVERBS AND REFLECTIONS. After asking, What is good for man in life? (Ecclesiastes 6:12), Qoheleth gives us advice as to what a man may do by way of mitigating his worries. First of all it is advisable for him to cultivate seriousness rather than levity (Ecclesiastes 7:1). The curious remark that a (good) name is better than precious ointment (_cf._ Ca. Ecclesiastes 1:3 *) is in the Heb. a play on the words _shem_ and _shemen;_ ointment is highly esteemed in the East. Ecclesiastes 7:1_ b_ reminds us of the Thracian tribe mentioned by Herodotus ...

COUNTING, &C. Or, supply the Ellipsis thus: "[considering women] one by one", &c. ACCOUNT. result....

_saith the Preacher_ The passage is remarkable as being the solitary instance in the book in which the name _Koheleth_, feminine in form, yet elsewhere treated as masculine, is joined with the feminine form of the verb. It is possible, however, that this may be only an error of transcription, the transfer of a single letter from the end of one word to the beginning of another, restoring the verse to the more common construction, as found, _e. g._in chap. Ecclesiastes 12:8, where, as here, adopting this reading, the article is prefixed to the word Koheleth, elsewhere treated as a proper name. _counting one by one_ The words remind us, on the one hand, of Diogenes the Cynic, with his lantern, looking for an honest man at Athens, and answering, when asked where such men might be found, that good _men_were to be found nowhere, and good _boys_only in Sparta ...

BEHOLD, THIS HAVE I FOUND, &C.— _Behold, this have I found_ (_saith the orator_), _examining them one by one, to find out the reason of it:_ Ecclesiastes 7:28. _Which my soul seeketh still, without being able to find it; one man, I say, among a thousand have I found, but a woman among them all I did not find._ It is amazing how different the expositions have been of this very elliptical passage. The only supplement which can be had from the context is, that which the reader will find expressed in the paraphrase on the following verse; namely, that Solomon found most men so disposed, as to be easily taken in the snares which are laid; there having been but very few of his acquaintance, to whom this part of his observation could be applied; _He who is good in the presence of God shall escape from her:_ and, with respect to the women of his acquaintance, th