Ecclesiastes 9:6

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. THEIR LOVE ... HATRED ... ENVY, IS NOW PERISHED - referring to , where see the note. Not that these cease in a future world absolutely (; ); but, as the end of this verse shows, relatively to persons and things in this world. Man's love and hatred can no longer be exercised for good or evil in the same way as here; but the fruits of them remain. What he is found at death, he remains forever. "Envy," too, marks the wicked, as referred to, since it was therewith that they assailed the righteous ...

4-10 The most despicable living man's state, is preferable to that of the most noble who have died impenitent. Solomon exhorts the wise and pious to cheerful confidence in God, whatever their condition in life. The meanest morsel, coming from their Father's love, in answer to prayer, will have a peculiar relish. Not that we may set our hearts upon the delights of sense, but what God has given us we may use with wisdom. The joy here described, is the gladness of heart that springs from a sense of the Divine favour. This is the world of service, that to come is the world of recompence. All in their stations, may find some work to do. And above all, sinners have the salvation of their souls to seek after, believers have to prove their faith, adorn the gospel, glorify God, and serve their generation....

Verse Ecclesiastes 9:6. _ALSO THEIR LOVE, AND THEIR HATRED_] It is evident that he speaks here of the ignorance, want of power, c., of the _dead_, in reference only to _this life_. And though they have no more a _portion_ under the sun, yet he does not intimate that they have none anywhere else. A man threatens to conquer kingdoms, c. He dies what are his _threats_?...

See Ecclesiastes 8:12, note; Ecclesiastes 8:14, note. The living are conscious that there is a future before them: but the dead are unconscious; they earn nothing, receive nothing, even the memory of them soon disappears; they are no longer excited by the passions which belong to people in this life; their share in its activity has ceased. Solomon here describes what he sees, not what he believes; there is no reference here to the fact or the mode of the existence of the soul in another world, which are matters of faith. The last clause of Ecclesiastes 9:6 indicates that the writer confines his observations on the dead to their portion in,

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 9:1 One fate happens to all, and the dead are cut off from all the feelings and interests of life in the upper world. ECCLESIASTES 9:1 This continues the subject treated above, confirming the conclusion arrived at in Ecclesiastes 8:17, viz. that God's government of the world is unfathomable. FOR ALL THIS I CONSIDERED IN MY HEART EVEN TO DECLARE ALL THIS; literally, _for_ _all this laid up in my heart, and all this I have been about _(equivalent to _I sought_)_ to clear up_._ _The reference is both to what has been said and to what is coming. The ki,...

ALSO THEIR LOVE, AND THEIR HATRED, AND THEIR ENVY, IS NOW PERISHED,.... Not that the separate spirits of the dead are without their affections, or these unexercised; the spirits of just men made perfect will love God and Christ, and angels, and good men, and all that is good, more intensely; love will continue after this life, and be in its height, and therefore said to be the greatest grace, 1 Corinthians 13:13; they will hate sin, Satan, and all the enemies of Christ, and be filled with zeal for his glory; so the word z for envy may be rendered; see Revelation 6:9; and the spirits of the wicked dead will still continue to love sin, and hate the Lord, and envy the happiness of the saints; and will rise again with the same spite and malice against them; see...

CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The common fate (Ecclesiastes 9:1)_ 2. Make the best of life (Ecclesiastes 9:7) 3. The great uncertainty (Ecclesiastes 9:11) Ecclesiastes 9:1. Here is another conclusion. The righteous and the wise with their works are in the hands of God. One event is in store for all, for the righteous, the wicked, the good, the clean, the unclean, the one who sacrificeth and the one who sacrificeth not--the grave is the one common goal. In that goal there is the end of all human toil and ambition. But even with this knowledge that all go one way, and the certainty of it,

ECCLESIASTES 8:16 TO ECCLESIASTES 9:16. LIFE'S RIDDLE BAFFLES THE WISEST QUEST. The parenthesis in Ecclesiastes 8:16_ b_ describes the ceaseless effort of the keen student of life, or perhaps the fate of the toiler who is too tired to sleep; with Ecclesiastes 8:17; cf. Ecclesiastes 7:24; Job 11:6, and from the Christian standpoint Romans 11:33

PERISHED. Like the knowledge and memory of Ecclesiastes 9:5....

_Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished_ The three passions are named as strongest and most vehement in their action. Even these are all hushed in the calm of the grave. There are no passions there, and the deadliest foes, rival statesmen and bitter controversialists, rest side by side together. The thought of the state of the dead stands on nearly the same level as that of the elegy of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:9-20)....