Ecclesiastes 7:8

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. BETTER (IS) THE END OF A THING - connected with . Let the "wise" wait for "the end" - i:e., the final issue to the righteous and the wicked respectively; and the "oppressions," which now (in "the beginning") perplex their faith, will be found by God's working to be overruled to their good. THE PATIENT IN SPIRIT. "Tribulation worketh patience" (), which is infinitely better than "the proud spirit" that prosperity might have generated in them, as it has in fools (Psalms 73:2; Psalms 73:12...

7-10 The event of our trials and difficulties is often better than at first we thought. Surely it is better to be patient in spirit, than to be proud and hasty. Be not soon angry, nor quick in resenting an affront. Be not long angry; though anger may come into the bosom of a wise man, it passes through it as a way-faring man; it dwells only in the bosom of fools. It is folly to cry out upon the badness of our times, when we have more reason to cry out for the badness of our own hearts; and even in these times we enjoy many mercies. It is folly to cry up the goodness of former times; as if former ages had not the like things to complain of that we have: this arises from discontent, and aptness to quarrel with God himself....

Verse Ecclesiastes 7:8. _BETTER_ IS _THE END_] We can then judge of the whole, and especially if the matter relate to the conduct of Divine Providence. At the beginning we are often apt to make very rash conjectures, and often suppose that such and such things are against us; and that every thing is going wrong. Dr. _Byrom_ gives good advice on such a subject: - "With patient mind thy course of duty run: God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, _But thou wouldst do thyself_, couldst thou but see The _end_ of all events, as well as HE." I may add, in the words of our paraphrast: -...

BETTER - Inasmuch as something certain is attained, man contemplates the end throughout an entire course of action, and does not rest upon the beginning. PATIENT ... PROUD - literally, “Long,” long-suffering ...“high,” in the sense of impatient....

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

BETTER [IS] THE END OF A THING THAN THE BEGINNING THEREOF,.... If the thing is good, other ways the end of it is worse; as the end of wickedness and wicked men, whose beginning is sweet, but the end bitter; yea, are the ways of death, Proverbs 5:4; and so the end of carnal professors and apostates, who begin in the Spirit, and end in the flesh, Galatians 3:3; but the end of good things, and of good men, is better than the beginning; as the end of Job was, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual, Job 8:7; see Psalms 37:37; [AND] THE PATIENT IN SPIRIT [IS] BETTER THAN THE PROUD IN SPIRIT; patience is a fruit of

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 ...

_Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof_ As in ch. Ecclesiastes 6:11, the noun translated "thing" may mean "word" and this gives a preferable meaning. It cannot be said of everything, good and bad alike, that its "end is better than its beginning" (comp. Proverbs 5:3-4; Proverbs 16:25; Proverbs 23:32), and those who so interpret the maxim are obliged to limit its meaning to good things, or to assume that the end must be a good one. Some (as Ginsburg) give to the "word" the sense of "reproof," but this limitation is scarcely needed. It may be said of well-nigh every form of speech, for silence is better

AND THE PATIENT IN SPIRIT IS BETTER THAN THE PROUD IN SPIRIT— _Better is he who considereth long, than he whose spirit is high._ We have, in this and the preceding verses, the first proof of the third general proposition. Most men, unmindful of futurity, prefer a delicate life to that course whereby a good reputation can be attained; yet a good reputation is preferable by much to the most refined luxury, Ecclesiastes 7:1. A birth-day is every where a day of joy, whereas the day in which any one dies is a day of tears; yet the day of one's birth is the beginning of his troubles, which, to all outward appearance, are at an end the day on which he leaves this world, Ecclesiastes 7:2. Few would choose to go to a house of mourning, if it were in their option to go to a feast; yet the considerati